MEXICO CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 17, 2026--
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the world’s largest HIV care provider, welcomes a new agreement between Gilead Sciences and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) that could expand access to lenacapavir for HIV prevention in 14 countries across Latin America. The agreement represents a positive step toward expanding access in the region and a victory for civil society.
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AHF was among the first organizations to mobilize around concerns that the initial Gilead-WHO agreement excluded Latin American countries and joined other civil society organizations in calling for the agreement to be expanded. The AHF Global Public Health Institute, in partnership with the National Institute of Public Health of Mexico, also conducted a study examining the potential impact of lenacapavir in Latin American countries. The study highlighted that achieving greater public health impact will depend on both a significantly reduced price and acceptability among potential users.
Whether PAHO or Gilead acknowledge the role played by civil society, other non-state actors and communities in getting this deal done might sound irrelevant to many, but it’s a fact that since the beginning of the epidemic in the 1980s, these actors have played a key role in making HIV treatment and prevention deals happen.
“It is encouraging to see PAHO and Gilead creating a pathway for access in countries that were excluded from the previous Gilead-WHO agreement. However, because this is a separate arrangement from the initial agreement, it must aim not simply for a fair price, but for a genuinely affordable one,” said Dr. Jorge Saavedra, Executive Director of the AHF Global Public Health Institute and former Director General of Mexico’s National AIDS Program. “In public health, we often say that it is better to prevent than to cure. For us, that also means prevention should be less expensive than treatment.”
Dr. Saavedra added, “How can a Latin American government be convinced to pay more for lenacapavir for prevention if antiretroviral treatment is less expensive and also serves as secondary prevention? That would create a major public health and economic contradiction.”
“Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Peru helped generate the clinical evidence for lenacapavir through Gilead’s pivotal PURPOSE 2 trial, yet they were excluded from the company’s original voluntary licensing arrangement,” said Dr. Patricia Campos, AHF Bureau Chief for Latin America and the Caribbean. “People who help make medical innovation possible should not then find themselves on the wrong side of an access barrier.”
Important questions also remain about what the new arrangement will mean in practice. AHF urges Gilead and PAHO to make pricing, timelines, regulatory requirements, and other key terms transparent and to ensure the agreement results in genuinely affordable and timely access. A new procurement mechanism is welcome, but access cannot exist only on paper.
AHF recognizes that lenacapavir is highly effective, but it remains far from being a silver bullet for controlling the HIV epidemic. Acceptability among populations at greatest risk will also be a key part of the equation. AHF will continue working with governments, civil society, and partners throughout the region to advocate for equitable and sustainable access to lenacapavir alongside the full range of proven HIV prevention tools, including condoms.
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the world’s largest HIV/AIDS healthcare organization, provides cutting-edge medicine and advocacy to more than 3 million people across 50 countries, including the U.S. and in Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region, and Eastern Europe. In January 2025, AHF received the MLK, Jr. Social Justice Award, The King Center’s highest recognition for an organization leading work in the social justice arena. To learn more about AHF, visit us online at AIDShealth.org, find us on Facebook, and follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.
Dr. Patricia Campos (middle), AHF Bureau Chief for Latin America & the Caribbean, speaks to attendees at a World AIDS Day concert in Mexico City on Nov. 29, 2025, about the importance of holding Gilead accountable for keeping lenacapavir out of reach of most countries in the region.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — An SUV driver was under the influence of drugs when she swerved into the wrong lane, blew a red light and slammed into a Los Angeles city bus, killing two riders, prosecutors said Thursday as they charged her with murder.
It was a tragedy compounded by the subsequent fatal crash of a TV news helicopter that had been covering the collision.
Bailee Lynn Rios was speeding and impaired when she drove her 2004 Ford Expedition the wrong way down a busy avenue and struck a vehicle before plowing into a city bus on Tuesday, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman told a news conference.
Rios, 36, faces two charges of second-degree murder in the deaths of the two people on the bus, identified as Daniel Castillo, 46, and Gage Weida, 31. Castillo left four children.
“There are no words that can truly capture how much we will miss him or the space he leaves behind in our lives,” Castillo’s youngest daughter, Johaunna, wrote on a fundraising page for funeral expenses.
Rios was being held on $4.1 million bail and is scheduled to appear in court Friday. Online court records did not list a lawyer who might speak on her behalf, and the public defender’s office did not immediately return a message about whether it was representing her.
Reached Wednesday, her mother Cindy Rios said she was shocked and saddened by the string of events. She said she had not spoken to Bailee Lynn Rios since her arrest and had not been contacted by law enforcement. She could not immediately be reached Thursday for additional comment.
The news helicopter crash killed both people on board, pilot George Marciniw and reporter Eliana Moreno, and a man on the ground, Edy Gutierrez Mejia. At least four cars and two storage containers burned after the helicopter caught fire.
A vigil was planned Thursday evening to honor the victims of both crashes.
There were no immediate details on what caused the helicopter to go down, but investigators said significant clues could come from the last seconds of video the crew broadcast. In it, an alarm could be heard inside the helicopter’s cockpit as it lost altitude.
National Transportation Safety Board investigator Fabian Salazar said Wednesday that the video is “probably the most important evidence that we have discovered so far.”
Just after the beeping starts, a woman’s voice says “uh oh.” The helicopter moves quickly away from the bus crash site and starts losing altitude. The woman says “You can’t pull up?” before the video stops as the chopper nears the ground.
Aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti said the alarm suggests a potential loss of engine power and a dangerous decrease in the main rotor speed. He said the pilot appeared to be trying to perform an emergency maneuver to use the wind to force the rotor to spin again.
The NTSB is also investigating the bus collision.
Moreno and Marciniw both worked for Angel City Air, a helicopter contractor, and provided aerial coverage for NBC4 and Telemundo 52.
Moreno, born in Orange County, joined Angel City Air in 2010, the same year she earned a broadcast journalism and political science degree from Chapman University. She reported for several news outlets and began flying with Marciniw in 2023, NBC4 said.
Marciniw grew up in Southern California and graduated from Burbank High School in 1974.
There have been at least eight fatal crashes involving news helicopters in the U.S. since 2000, killing 16 people, according to a review of federal accident records and news accounts.
A memorial for Eliana Moreno and George Marciniw, who died in a helicopter crash the day prior while covering an accident for a television station, at the site where their helicopter used to park at Whiteman Airport in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope) ADDITION: the day prior while covering an accident for a television station.
A person adjusts flowers at a memorial for Eliana Moreno and George Marciniw, who died in a helicopter crash the day prior while covering an accident for a television station, at the site where their helicopter used to park at Whiteman Airport in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope) ADDITION: Adds in a helicopter crash the day prior while covering an accident for a television station.
A memorial for Eliana Moreno and George Marciniw who died in a helicopter crash is seen at the site where their helicopter used to park at Whiteman Airport in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
In this aerial view, people investigate the aftermath of a news helicopter crash in Chatsworth, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, on Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026.(AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
A person adjusts flowers at a memorial for Eliana Moreno and George Marciniw who died in a helicopter crash at the site where their helicopter used to park at Whiteman Airport in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
