Harvard researchers looking into over-the-counter PrEP

Boston-area researchers are exploring whether PrEP , the HIV prevention medication, should be available over the counter.

Why it matters: The U.S. reported 32,100 estimated new HIV infections in 2021, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .

The big picture: Health experts and advocates say the number of new infections should be far lower with the availability of prevention medication.

• They want to reduce the number of new infections to 3,000 by 2030.
• "PrEP is 99% effective or more in preventing HIV. It's safe, and it's low or no cost for nearly everyone," says Julia Marcus, a professor at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute and Harvard Medical School.
• "At this point, we have no more excuses for why we are not ending new HIV infections in this country."

Zoom in: Marcus and Douglas Krakower, a fellow professor, received a $500,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to conduct the research.

• They will survey gay and bisexual men, cisgender women and transgender women about whether they would want easy access to PrEP and why or why not.
• The research is modeled after studies conducted on whether to make birth control available over the counter.

Flashback: A yearslong "free the Pill" campaign involved studies on how making birth control available over the counter would affect the people who need it most but can't get to a doctor to obtain a prescription.

• Last July, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first over-the-counter oral contraceptive pill.

The PrEP research is happening out of the new LGBTQ Health Center of Excellence.

• The center, based at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute in partnership with Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, launched last month.
• The center has 13 faculty members, a half-dozen postdoctoral fellows and various advisors, says Brittany Charlton, the center's founding director.

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