(Photo via CVS Pharmacy’s Facebook)
CVS Health, the nation’s second largest pharmacy benefit manager company that plays a key role in deciding which drugs are covered by health insurance policies, has belatedly agreed to cover the new highly acclaimed HIV prevention drug yeztugo.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of yeztugo as an HIV prevention or “PrEP” medication in June 2025 as the first such drug to be taken by injection just once every six months. AIDS activists hailed the drug as a major breakthrough in the longstanding effort to end the HIV epidemic.
“We are pleased that CVS Health has finally decided to cover this groundbreaking new PrEP mediation,” said Carl Schmid, executive director of the HIV+ Hepatitis Policy Institute.
“Four months ago, 63 HIV organizations joined us in sending a letter to CVS’s president urging them to reconsider their refusal to cover Yeztugo and reminding them of their legal obligation to cover PrEP and describe the important benefits the drug would bring to preventing HIV in the U.S.,” Schmid said in a statement.
He noted that CVS Health now joins other leading pharmacy benefit manager companies and insurers in covering yeztugo. Gilead Sciences, the pharmaceutical company that developed and manufactures yeztugo, has said 85 percent of all people with health insurance in the U.S. now have coverage for the drug, according to Schmid.
“However, coverage does not automatically translate into access and usage,” Schmid said in his statement. “Too many people are being forced to pay copays while other payers, including employers, are failing to cover all forms of PrEP,” he said.
According to Schmid, the HIV+ Hepatitis Policy Institute is joining other HIV advocacy organizations in urging federal and state government officials to engage in “aggressive enforcement of PrEP insurance coverage requirements and sustained funding of state, local, and community HIV prevention programs.”
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