Does generic PrEP work the same as brand name Truvada?

Generic Truvada is available both at pharmacies in Australia and to buy online from overseas.

The generic medications contain the same active ingredients as the ‘Truvada’ brand named product many people have heard about, much in the same way you can purchase Panadol or generic home brand paracetamol. It might be a slightly different shape or colour, but it’s still the same thing.

People have been using generic PrEP in Australia since the early days of PrEP access – and would often buy it from overseas online. Many people still use this as a cheaper alternative to the PBS.

Generic PrEP works the same and provide the same clinical benefits as brand name Truvada. As PrEP became popular in the UK and generic PrEP was being purchased from overseas – one clinic tested people who we reusing generic PrEP form online and found that everyone had the PrEP drugs in their system [1]. This means the PrEP they were buying and using was working fine. you can even see the results of generic PrEP tests here.

Additionally, in Australia all of the clinical studies of PrEP used generic PrEP as a means to get affordable PrEP to over 15,000 people enrolled in EPIC, PrEPX, QPrEP’D, PrEPIT-WA and their expansions in SA, TAS, and ACT.

If over 15,000 people who were taking generic PrEP were not taking an effective medication, or ‘fake’ PrEP – many of those people would acquire HIV. Since they did not – we know it works.

In short, generic PrEP works.

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Notes:

[1] Generic PrEP bought online for UK use is validated by drug testing service (i-base) http://i-base.info/htb/30888