Trans Immigrant Awarded $930M in McDonalds Discrimination Suit

On August 15, a jury in a D.C. Superior Court ruled that the Burke, VA-based company — owner of a McDonald’s restaurant franchise in D.C. — must pay $700,000 in punitive damages and $230,000 for emotional distress, pain, and suffering to Diana Portillo, an undocumented Transgender woman who worked for the restaurant from 2011 until 2016.

The jury’s verdict is the first ever for an employment discrimination case for a Transgender individual under the D.C. Human Rights Act.

Portillo was employed at the Georgia Ave. McDonald’s — owned and managed by International Golden Foods, LLC of Burke, Va (IGF) — and claimed that, beginning after her transition two years after being hired, she faced incessant harassment and misgendering by coworkers, culminating in being publicly chastised by a supervisor for using the women’s restroom in 2016. Eight days later, after raising complaints to corporate management and human resources, Portillo was fired. She filed an official charge with the D.C. Office of Human Rights, and ultimately filed a discrimination lawsuit in 2021.

IGF claimed that Portillo was fired because they discovered she was not authorized to work in the U.S. The jury found that this was an excuse to fire her, and that she was actually fired in retaliation for her complaint.

According to reporting from PublicLawLibrary and the Washington Blade, in the time since her firing, Portillo has been granted asylum in the U.S. based on discrimination she faced in El Savador, and now works for D.C.-based health organization La Clinica del Pueblo, as a full-time counselor for their LGBTQ+ focused “Empoderate Centers.”

Gilead Study Finds Injectable PrEP More Effective Than Pills

In September Gilead Sciences announced the results of an analysis of a Phase 3 clinical trial investigating the use of lenacapavir, the company’s twice-yearly injectable HIV prevention medication, compared to use of once-daily pills of the company’s HIV prevention medication Truvada (tenofovir/emtricitabine), as PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis).

The trial found that, among 2,180 participants taking lenacapavir, only two contracted HIV — a 99.9 percent efficacy rate. This was 89 percent more effective than tenofovir/emtricitabine in daily pill form, though only 9 of 1,087 participants taking tenofovir/emtricitabine contracted HIV — still a 99.1 percent effective rate.

In an earlier Gilead trial, 5,000 women and adolescent girls in Africa were given either twice-per-year injections of lenacapavir, once-daily emtricitabine/tenofovir alafenamide (F/TAF), or once-daily emtricitabine-tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (F/TDF).

Of the 2,134 participants who received the lenacapavir injections, there were zero infections, compared to 30 of 2,136 participants taking F/TAF and 16 of 1,068 taking F/TDF.

In December 2021 the FDA approved the first injectable PrEP medication — Apretude (cabotegravir extended-release injectable suspension), a drug developed by ViiV healthcare. The approval came just 11 months after approving the same drug, when administered in combination with rilpivirine, to treat HIV infections — under the brand name Cabenuva.

Cabotegravir, like lenacapavir, was found to be more effective (and less prone to user error) than daily pill-based Truvada — 70 to 90 percent more — in clinical trials. Cabotegravir injections need to be taken every other month.

The cost for each cabotegravir injection is $3,700 — an annual cost of $22,200. The current list price for lenacapavir, under the brand name Sunlenca, is $40,000 per year. Generic tenofovir/emtricitabine, on the other hand, is now available for just $60 per month — and Gilead assistance programs provide both of their PrEP medications (Truvada and Descovy) free-of-charge for individuals with incomes under roughly $63,000.

For more information, please visit gileadadvancingaccess.com.

The Bottom Line: HIV Eradication Is Within Sight, If We Want

Injectable PrEP could eliminate HIV worldwide, but not at a higher cost than most annual salaries in the nations that desperately need them. A South African study presented at the 24th International AIDS Conference in 2022 estimated that, in order to be effective in fighting the country’s HIV epidemic, the cost per injection cannot exceed $9 to $15.

I appreciate that a lot of money was spent researching these developments, but the costs for these medications — and the hoops one must jump through to receive them, even then — are far too high.
According to a Clinton Health Access Initiative, cabotegravir could be manufactured for between $2.50 and $3.50 per year with sufficient demand.

It would be great if we weren’t still talking about this in another decade. Let’s find a way to eradicate HIV once and for all. The cost may seem extroardinarily high, but the cost of doing nothing will always be far higher.