ViiV Healthcare has found that global stigma attached to HIV patients remains woefully strong in a new survey.
The online survey was run by Opinium on behalf of ViiV from Sept. 28 to Oct. 6 this year across 8,000 adults from eight countries, and it found some worrying stats. Nearly three-quarters of people (74%) believe that there are still “negative perceptions” when it comes to people living with HIV, while 1 in 6 said that, if a friend or colleague had HIV, they “might look at them negatively,” according to the survey.
Only 1 in 2 people said they would “feel comfortable” dating someone living with HIV, while a quarter of adults (25%) believe that it “is not appropriate” for employees to talk about HIV in the workplace, which ViiV said in a press release is a major factor “continuing to perpetuate HIV as a taboo subject.”
“When we talk about HIV in conversation, in the media, within clinical settings, policies and guidelines, the use of stigmatising language can marginalise people living with, or affected by HIV,” says HIV physician Laura Waters, M.D., chair of the British HIV Association and founder of the People First Charter.
“Person-first language must be the absolute norm to help challenge HIV-related stigma and discrimination. We’ve come a long way—but too many examples persist and we need a unified voice to challenge these.”
The specialist HIV company, majority owned by GSK with Pfizer and Shionogi as shareholders, also released a separate campaign this week to help end HIV in the U.S. under a new coalition.
Together with the Health Action Alliance, ViiV is launching U.S. Business Action to End HIV, a new coalition of businesses committed to accelerating progress to end HIV in the U.S. by 2030.
Ada Health, Avita, BLK, Chispa, CVS Health, Gilead Sciences, Healthvana, National LGBT Chamber of Commerce, OraSure Technologies, The Powell Companies Real, Tinder, Uber, ViiV Healthcare, Walgreens and Walmart are founding member organizations of this new coalition.
The aim is to work with employers in the U.S. “to fill gaps and accelerate progress to help end HIV,” they said in a press release, with a strong focus on better and more equitable access to drugs that can treat and prevent HIV, such as the ones ViiV markets.
ViiV is consistently ranked as the most reputable pharma company and one most focused on social and diversity issues. The pharma focuses solely on HIV treatment, and the business is projected to rake in about 7 billion pounds sterling in sales by 2026.
The cabotegravir franchise—which currently includes Cabenuva treatment and Apretude for PrEP—could reach peak sales of around 3 billion pounds in 2030, ODDO BHF analysts estimated in a note to clients in October.
Also in ViiV’s portfolio is Dovato, which was greenlighted in 2019 and made 787 million pounds ($940 million) last year, as recorded under GSK.