A new podcast exploring the uptake of “the other blue pill,” pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), is now online.
The six-part series “The Other Blue Pill” features interviews with experts, activists and people directly affected by the campaign to improve access to life-saving HIV prevention medication.
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After a historic battle, PrEP became available free of charge on the NHS for people at high risk of infection in April 2020.
The podcast looks back at the years leading up to the emergence of PrEP as a treatment in the early 2010s and then details the long, drawn-out battle through the courts and beyond to make PrEP fairly and free available in the UK.
“Currently, people in the UK are being forced to buy DoxyPEP online” – PrEP campaigner Phil Samba
“What I found interesting about making this podcast is that we've discovered we haven't learned from the past,” Phil Samba, co-creator of “The Love Tank” podcast, said in a statement.
“History repeats itself. The fight for access to PrEP is reminiscent of the fight for access to HIV medications in the 1990s.”
Phil, who also narrates the podcast, added: “Similarly, people in the UK are now being forced to buy Doxipep online, which is exactly what happened with PrEP for around five years before it was available on the NHS.”
“We have all the tools at our disposal to improve sexual health, and we're not using them. We see this happening now with DoxyPEP, and before that with the way MPOX was handled. We must learn from the past to know where to go in the future and to avoid making the same mistakes again.”
Deborah Gold, former chief executive of the National AIDS Trust, also appeared on the podcast, saying in a statement: “The story of PrEP's past, present and future is a fascinating one – a breakthrough drug that changed the face of HIV prevention, and one that required activist and legal action to access.”
Gold added: “Even today, access to PrEP remains very limited, unavailable to many who need it, and its benefits often fail to reach those who need it most. This fantastic podcast gives an inside look and reveals the challenges ahead if PrEP is to reach its full potential.”
Image: Tony Webster/Wikimedia Commons
