Use of PrEP in the U.S. Is Increasing but Still Insufficient

In 2012, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved tenofovir disoproxil fumarate with emtricitabine (TDF/FTC) for preexposure prophylaxis, and in 2019 the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force gave it a grade A recommendation. Despite this, efforts to increase PrEP uptake have not been as successful as hoped, owing to the treatment's cost. In 2018 the average wholesale price of a 30-day supply of TDF/FTC (Truvada) was $2100, with the 340B price being $1024.

These investigators used a national database to analyze both third-party and out-of-pocket payments. Between 2014 and 2018, the number of persons prescribed PrEP increased from 20,135 to 204,720 and the number of PrEP prescriptions increased from 73,739 to 1,100,684. During that time, …