Cllr Izzi Seccombe, Chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, said:
“We fully support PrEP being made available to everyone who needs it and are working with Public Health England and NHS England to launch a national programme following the trial period and subsequent evaluation to avoid any delay in national roll-out.
“Earlier this year, the PrEP Oversight Board agreed that the workstream on preparing for future commissioning should be brought forward a year, with work now underway with regard to this.
“The aim of the trial, which has ethical approval, is not to meet all need but to collect data to address and reduce the uncertainties that face public sector commissioners in their decisions about future investment in a large scale programme.”
Notes to editors
It costs almost £380,000 to treat one person with HIV across their lifetime while the cost of providing the PrEP drug for one person is currently around £4,700 per year.