The NHS is now back to considering offering PrEP, a drug that prevents HIV, to gay and bisexual men following legal threats.

In a shock decision in March, NHS England said after an 18-month consideration it would not fund Truvada in the majority of cases.

But after legal action from the National AIDS Trust, with representation from Deighton Pierce Glynn, the HIV charity received a response from NHS England saying they may have been too hasty in their decision.

‘NHS England will carefully consider its position on commissioning PrEP in light of [NAT’S] representations,’ they told them.

NHS England will now meet in May to decide whether or not to put PrEP back into the decision-making process. If it goes back, a Clinical Priorities Advisory Group will meet in June to decide on what the healthcare provider will commission in 2016/2017, where PrEP will be considered along other proposals.

Deborah Gold, Chief Executive, NAT, said: ‘We welcome this change of mind from NHS England. NHS England had previously told us that it was impossible for them to reconsider their decision. Faced with legal action, they have now changed their mind. We trust that NHS England, when it re-evaluates its position, will come back with a resounding yes.

‘PrEP is one of the most exciting prevention options to emerge since the HIV epidemic began and offers the prospect of real success in combatting this virus. To deny the proper process to decide whether to commission PrEP, when 17 people are being diagnosed with HIV every day, is not only morally wrong but legally wrong also.’

NHS England does fund other medication to protect sexual health, such as the oral contraceptive pill.

After their initial decision, the NHS said it would invest £2 million, protecting 500 men at ‘high risk of HIV infection’, in further tests. But HIV experts slammed the £2 million figure as ‘arbitrary’, ‘disingenuous’ and ‘not informed by any due process’.

The US, Canada, France, Israel and Kenya have all made PrEP available in some way.