Trends in HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis uptake in Ontario, Canada, and impact of policy changes: a population-based analysis of projected pharmacy data (2015–2018)

Objectives HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a proven tool for HIV prevention, but PrEP use in Ontario, Canada, and the effects of recent policies are unknown. We estimated the number and characteristics of PrEP users in Ontario and evaluated the impacts of policy changes between July 2015 and June 2018. Methods We obtained tenofovir disoproxil fumarate/emtricitabine (TDF/FTC) dispensation data for Ontario from IQVIA, and applied an algorithm to identify use for PrEP. We report prevalent PrEP use for the second quarter of 2018 according to age, sex, region, prescriber specialty, and payer type, and generate “PrEP-to-need ratios” (PNR) by dividing these numbers by the estimated numbers of new HIV diagnoses. We used interventional autoregressive integrated moving average models to examine the impact of three policy changes on PrEP use: Health Canada approval (February 2016), availability of generic TDF/FTC and partial public drug coverage (September 2017), and public drug coverage for individuals aged < 25 years (January 2018). Results The estimated number of individuals receiving PrEP increased 713%, from 374 in 2015 Q3 to 3041 in 2018 Q2. Among PrEP users in 2018 Q2, 97.5% were male, 60.4% were < 40 years, 67.7% obtained PrEP from a family physician, 77.2% used private insurance, and 67.0% were in Toronto. PNRs were highest in 30–39-year-olds, males, Toronto and the Central East and West regions. Time series analyses found that Health Canada approval ( p = 0.0001) and introducing generics/partial public drug coverage ( p = 0.002) led to significantly increased use. Conclusions PrEP use has risen in Ontario in association with favourable policy changes, but remains far below guideline recommendations.