Australia in midst of PrEP shortage

GPs warned the supply issues could last into 2025.

Earlier this week the TGA announced Australia is experiencing a shortage of several medications containing tenofovir, the HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) drug.

The medicine shortages reports database has been updated to include five combinations of the antiretroviral drug listed as having limited availability or being completely unavailable, with expected supply dates ranging between 12 September 2024 and 3 March 2025.

The TGA has claimed the shortage is primarily due to manufacturing issues and “commercial changes”, stating that “the sponsor is working to expedite the next shipment”.

Outgoing RACGP president Dr Nicole Higgins has called on the federal government to take action to prevent the shortage from costing lives.

“Medication shortages, such as PrEP, are at best an inconvenience, but at worst can be life threatening,” she told newsGP.

“This is part of a global supply shortage, and Australia is a small market in the scheme of things.

“But if this continues, the Australian Government needs to make a choice about ensuring that we have adequate stockpiles of essential medications on soil, or the capacity to be able to manufacture essential drugs.”

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The news comes at a less than ideal time, with the Kirby Institute announcing this week that the number of new HIV cases in 2023 increased compared to 2022 (722, up from 553) – although the number of new diagnoses has fallen by 33% since 2014.

“We’ve had tremendous success reducing HIV among gay and bisexual men in Australia, and in 2023, we saw record numbers of people prescribed PrEP for HIV prevention,” Professor Andrew Grulich, head of the Kirby Institute’s HIV epidemiology and prevention program, told media earlier this week.

“We have the strategies and technologies to eliminate HIV transmission in Australia. But we need to make sure PrEP and other prevention strategies are reaching the populations that most need them.”

There are currently 384 medicine shortages affecting the country, according to the medicine shortages database.