MPs have called for PrEP to be made more accessible in UK pharmacies during a House of Commons debate last week (February 13).
Conservative MP for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale David Mundell said it was “ridiculous that, during this debate, I could have emailed somebody in India and obtained PrEP, but I could not go up Victoria Street into a pharmacy and do that.
“As well as making sure that we continue with the [HIV] testing initiative, let us make PrEP more readily available,” he added.
Read more: Welsh government reveals plans for pharmacy PrEP pilot
Last week’s debate took place during national HIV testing week in England and Mundell stressed that “normalising HIV testing is crucial”.
Labour MP for Cardiff West Alex Barros-Curtis called on ministers to “unlock a UK-wide problem” and make PrEP available “outside of sexual health clinics”.
Speaking about access to the drug in Wales, he said that “sexual health is a bottleneck service to start PrEP”.
Read more: Draft HIV guidance backs website selling PrEP for Bitcoin
“For many people, PrEP could be provided online, but for too many people in Wales it is not available online,” he stressed, adding that “there are rules and regulations stopping PrEP from being dispensed or even prescribed in community pharmacies”.
“I ask my honourable friend to examine this issue and to use her good offices to tear down these barriers,” Barros-Curits said, noting that otherwise the 2030 goal for zero HIV transmissions “will be missed”.
Make PrEP “accessible”
Health minister Karin Smyth said that the government “[wants] to build a future where testing is routine, treatment is available to all, PrEP and post-exposure prophylaxis are accessible, and no one is left alone in their journey”.
“To support improved PrEP access and many other critical HIV prevention interventions, the government have provided local authority-commissioned public health services, which include sexual and reproductive health services, a cash increase of £198 million compared with 2024-25,” she said.
Read more: Green Party pledges to make PrEP available in pharmacies and online
She added this would mean “an average 5.4% cash increase and a 3% real-terms increase”.
“That represents a significant turning point for local health services: the biggest real-terms increase after nearly a decade of reduced spending between 2014 and 2024,” she said.
Read more: HIV: Government ‘exploring’ making PrEP available in pharmacies
It comes after the Welsh government told C+D in December that a pilot scheme making PrEP “more accessible” via community pharmacies is set to being in autumn 2025.
“We are working with health boards to finalise plans to pilot a model that will provide more convenient access to PrEP in the community,” a Welsh government spokesperson said at the time.
And the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) issued a warning about “patient safety” in the same month after discovering that draft HIV guidance directed patients to purchase PrEP from a website using Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency.
