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With donated drugs and services provided by major pharmacy chains, 200,000 uninsured Americans will gain access to H.I.V.-preventive medicines at no cost, the Trump administration announced on Tuesday. The announcement, by Alex M. Azar II, the health and human services secretary, essentially explained how the government plans to distribute the drugs for pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, that were promised in May by the drugmaker Gilead Sciences. (McNeil, 12/3)

Expanding access to what’s called PrEP — for pre-exposure prophylaxis — is one key to the Trump administration’s ambitious goal of ending the nation’s HIV epidemic by 2030. “We have the tools to stop the spread of HIV in its tracks. It’s about execution,” Azar told The Associated Press. (12/3)

To reach the goal of stopping HIV transmission, health authorities estimate that 95% of infected people must be diagnosed, 95% of the diagnosed must be virally suppress by HIV drugs, and 50% of at risk people must be using PrEP. Data released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show the country is currently off the mark on all three counts, the latter two by large margins. (Branswell1, 12/3)

Azar noted that just 1.8 percent of the 1.2 million Americans who might benefit from HIV PrEP are actually taking the medication. That low level of access is in part because of the $2,000 monthly list price of Truvada and Descovy, the two Gilead Sciences drugs approved for HIV prevention, as well as the absence of a generic alternative. A generic version of Truvada is set to be released in September 2020. (Fitzsimons, 12/3)

The program will cover 100% of the cost of the medication, but it won't cover the costs of clinic visits and lab tests that an individual would need to obtain or renew a PrEP prescription. Azar said these other services are often available at low or no cost from many health care providers, including federally qualified health centers that serve those who don't have health insurance or are ineligible for Medicaid. (Kounang, 12/3)

Three major drugstore chains, Walgreens, Rite Aid, and CVS Health, have donated their prescribing services for the program, and they will have the medications available no later than March 30 of next year. They will also provide patient counseling services and promote adherence to the drug regimen — for maximum effectiveness, making it virtually impossible to acquire the virus, the medication must be taken daily. These companies have 21,000 locations throughout the nation, representing one-third of pharmacies in the U.S. They will fill prescriptions by mail order as well as in person. (Ring, 12/3)

Kaiser Health News: HHS Hands Out Free HIV Prevention Drugs. Do You Qualify?

If you are interested in signing up for the program, here’s what you need to know. (Heredia Rodriguez, 12/4)

There is also a tense background to the announcement given that in November the Trump administration sued Gilead, alleging the company was infringing on government patents for these HIV drugs. Azar said the lawsuit is separate from Tuesday’s announcement, saying it is "not related in any way” to the lawsuit. (Sullivan, 12/3)

Only 40 percent of U.S. adults have ever been tested for HIV, and fewer than a fifth of the people at high risk for developing the infection are receiving the medication that prevents it, the government reported Tuesday. Dramatic improvement in testing and prevention, and better treatment of people who already have HIV, are urgently needed if the government is to reach President Trump’s goal of virtually wiping out transmission of the infection by 2030, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. (Bernstein, 12/3)

When asked to start a support group for gay black men living with HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, Larry Scott-Walker said no thanks. His friend raised the question in 2015, and by that point, the 35-year-old HIV program manager had accumulated over a decade's worth of experience working in the HIV field, first in Baltimore and then in Atlanta, often leading such support groups. "They were just, like, really sad," he explains. People would come to the groups to unpack each week's traumas. (Landman, 12/4)