March 24, 2026
AVAC Impact Reports highlight the power of advocacy, research translation, and partnership to advance HIV prevention and global health equity. Read also about how AVAC and partners are standing up for science and new efforts to translate evidence for decision making.
Zambia remains among the top ten countries most affected by HIV globally, despite significant progress over the past decade to reduce new infections. Sustaining these gains—and continuing to drive down incidence—requires ongoing prioritization of differentiated prevention methods that meet the diverse needs of communities.
Against this backdrop, lenacapavir (LEN) for PrEP, a six-month injectable, responds to community demands for flexible and acceptable prevention options. Just 18 months after groundbreaking Phase III trial results were announced at the AIDS 2024 conference, Zambia administered its first injections of LEN for PrEP at a World AIDS Day (WAD) commemoration on December 1, 2025. As one of five African countries to implement LEN to date (just months after the approval and launch in the US), this milestone represents a new record for speed in launching a new prevention product, and reflects the culmination of sustained advocacy and strong stakeholder collaboration.
The progress made in reducing new HIV infections in Zambia can be attributed to the Ministry of Health’s (MOH’s) commitment to expanding the national prevention ‘basket of choices’—enabling meaningful collaboration across civil society groups, donors, product developers, and global advocates, aligned around a shared strategy to support LEN rollout.
To support Zambia’s readiness for LEN introduction, AVAC provided targeted technical support while also laying critical groundwork across the region in anticipation of rollout. Leveraging its role as a global convener, leading advocacy voice, and secretariat of the Coalition to Accelerate Access to Long-Acting PrEP, AVAC helped align efforts across early adopter countries, including Zambia.
For over a year, AVAC worked with MOHs, donors, implementing partners, technical assistance providers and civil society partners across 11 early-adopter countries to support introduction planning. AVAC launched a community of practice for MOHs, creating space for countries to share lessons, align approaches, and learn from one another. In parallel, AVAC partnered with civil society to support local consultation meetings on LEN, ensuring that community perspectives were reflected in national planning from the outset. Together, these efforts helped foster a more coordinated and country-led approach to rollout and ensured other countries could directly and rapidly learn from Zambia’s successful launch.
In Zambia, AVAC complemented this regional coordination with direct technical support to update national PrEP guidelines, adapt social and behavioral change (SBC) materials, and train community mobilizers and clinical staff. These efforts also prioritized early demand generation, ensuring communities were informed, engaged, and ready to access LEN at launch.
On the day of the launch, two people were initiated on LEN and by day five, 77 people had started, demonstrating early demand and the effectiveness of coordinated rollout and demand generation efforts. Beyond these initial numbers, this process has created a framework and strengthened systems for rapid introduction of future new options, improved coordination across partners, and reinforced the central role of communities in shaping prevention access.
During the launch event, Idah Mulala, program manager at AVAC’s partner, Ascend Futures Foundation, reflected on her experience at the HIV Research for Prevention (HIVR4P) conference in 2024, where the PURPOSE 2 trial results were announced: “I remember asking one critical question [to panelists]: ‘At what cost will this option be made available, and when can communities expect access?’ One year later, I am proud to witness and be part of a historic moment. Lenacapavir is now available for use in Zambia.”
The momentum for early approval and introduction of LEN across Africa has not slowed. To date, 12 African countries have approved LEN. Eswatini, Kenya, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe have also launched LEN, while implementation science studies already launched in South Africa, as well as Brazil and the US with an additional project about to launch in Zambia. Other countries prioritized by Global Fund and PEPFAR for LEN introduction, including Lesotho, Mozambique, and Uganda, have received supply and are expected to introduce LEN imminently.
For AVAC, celebrating the LEN launch on WAD 2025 marked 30 years of championing science, promoting community leadership, and advancing equitable access in the HIV response. Looking ahead, our newest collaboration with Access Bridge, an independent Kenya-based nonprofit incubated at AVAC, will further advance regional leadership as we carry this work forward.
Lenacapavir comes at a time when communities need it most. We look forward to continuing to work with partners to ensure this momentum is not lost—and that the promise of speed, scale and equity in LEN introduction becomes the new normal for future HIV prevention options and all other global health technologies.