(Reuters) - Charity Medecins Sans Frontieres has accused U.S. drugmaker Gilead Sciences Inc GILD.O of restricting access to its breakthrough hepatitis C drug Sovaldi in developing countries as it tries to protect profit margin in wealthier nations.
MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, said Gilead's restrictions aimed to stop discounted supplies of Sovaldi being diverted to patients from rich countries, but that the effort had resulted in "multiple restrictions and demands" on people receiving treatment in poor countries.
It said Gilead was excluding people without national identity documents, a move that hurts migrants, refugees and marginalized patients.
Read more...
Showing posts with label global access. Show all posts
Showing posts with label global access. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Worldwide treatment of hepatitis C could be within sight at the right cost
The FINANCIAL -- Lowering the cost of hepatitis C drugs is possible and key to achieving global access to treatment, according to new research by the University of Liverpool and Imperial College London.
There are an estimated 185 million people infected with the hepatitis C virus worldwide and 160,000 in Britain. Currently there is no vaccine and, if left untreated, infection can lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer, causing up to 500,000 related deaths globally per year.
Hepatitis C is particularly problematic in low to middle income countries; for example 12 million people are infected in Egypt.
A new and effective generation of direct-acting antiviral drugs (DAAs) has been developed to treat hepatitis C. However, at present these drugs are highly expensive. A 12-week course of the new drug sofosbuvir in the US is priced at as much as $84,000 per person and £55,440 in the UK. The NHS has recently delayed introduction of sofosbuvir due to its high price.
Read more...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)