South Africa’s health minister on Tuesday called lenacapavir, the first twice-yearly HIV prevention jab in the world, a “groundbreaking” tool to fight the disease, but warned initial donated supply would be limited to nearly half a million people in the African country with the highest prevalence rate.
This comes just weeks after the U.S. announced plans to buy 2 million doses of the HIV prevention drug for low-income countries.
The initial supply in South Africa is set to begin in April 2026, funded by a $29.2 million Global Fund grant with an additional $5 million allocated by the Networking HIV and AIDS Community of Southern Africa (NACOSA).
Addressing a national healthcare roundtable dialogue in Johannesburg, Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said the Global Funds’ catalytic commitment will deliver around 456,000 lenacapavir initiations over two years, translating into 912,000 doses.
“We plan to roll out lenacapavir initially in about 23 high-incident districts across six provinces, targeting around 360 high-performing public clinics within these areas for phase one implementation,” said the minister.
