EDMONTON—Albertans with HIV will now have access to a new treatment free of charge, as the province becomes the latest to cover a breakthrough medication that will make it easier for those infected to live with the virus.

Biktarvy, an oral medication used to treat HIV, is now included under the Alberta Drug Benefit list. Health Minister Tyler Shandro announced the addition on his Twitter feed Monday, saying the province is “helping Albertans with HIV get the supports they need.”

The drug, which was approved by Health Canada in August 2018, typically retails for about $3,200 (US) a month, according to several drug price lists. Dr. Stephen Shafran, a professor of infectious diseases with the University of Alberta’s department of medicine, said the availability of this drug will be especially significant for those who are low-income or live in vulnerable situations.

Taken once a day, Biktarvy is a drug that can be consumed with or without food, and has virtually no interactions with any medication a patient may be taking to treat other medical conditions. It also has no reported negative side-effects.

“Some of our patients are quite poor and have food insecurity issues,” Shafran said. “So for that subset of patients ... it’s really important.”

The drug also doesn’t interact with opioids or other street drugs a patient may be consuming, Shafran said.

Biktarvy is the latest addition under Alberta’s Specialized High Cost Drug Program, officially joining the list on Aug. 22, according to Alberta Health spokesperson Tom McMillan. The program also provides 17 other medications used in the treatment of HIV.

But Biktarvy is seen as the latest breakthrough in HIV treatment. When a single tab of the medication is taken daily, Biktarvy targets essential proteins in the HIV virus, effectively blocking it from multiplying and spreading. This reduces the viral load of HIV in the blood, lowering the viral load and making the virus undetectable, therefore non-transferable between people, Shafran said.

Biktarvy was approved in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration in February 2018. In those 18 months, it has had the most successful uptake commercially than any other HIV medicine, Shafran said, and there were zero cases in the 18 months that showed the development of any type of resistance to the drug.

HIV medication has come a long way, Shafran said, with medications like Biktarvy making it easy for patients to live with their HIV and lead a healthier life.

“It keeps getting better,” Shafran said of new treatment. “And Biktarvy pretty much ticks all the boxes.”

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There are about 6,500 people living with HIV in Alberta, Shafran said. Around 2,500 of those patients are receiving treatment in Edmonton, and another 2,000 are in care in Calgary. The average number of new diagnoses per year in Alberta is around 275, he added.

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But Shafran said he anticipates the number of new diagnoses will decrease, as the province also introduced PrEP on its drug list in October 2018. PrEP, also known as pre-exposure prophylaxis treatment, is a prevention drug used by people who may be at risk of contracting HIV. Shafran said PrEP has long been available in other parts of the world, where the rates of new HIV cases have decreased since its introduction.

Alberta joins Ontario, Quebec, and Saskatchewan as the latest provinces in Canada to cover Biktarvy. The drug is not yet covered in British Columbia, Manitoba, and the Atlantic provinces.

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