Hepatitis C Cure Availability In Developing Countries Hits Snag Over Pricing

Today three percent of the world’s population is living with hepatitis C, with an estimated 185 million people infected worldwide. In 2013 a new oral agent sofosbuvir was FDA approved to treat hepatitis C, with improved cure rates and shorter treatment duration, for some people even without interferon.

The cost of the new drug is at $84,000 per treatment, activist know the high price of sofosbuvir will make access impossible for people living in low and middle income countries. Recently, as many of you know,  Reuters reported Gilead Sciences announced they will license the life saving antiviral to a number of Indian generic drug manufacturers which will lower the cost of sofosbuvir in India. Today, Mike Nace, from bionews weighs in;

Hepatitis C Cure Availability In Developing Countries Hits Snag Over Pricing

Posted by: Mike Nace February 17, 2014

Critics of Gilead’s pricing scheme say, that they believe the Hepatitis C treatment could be offered to countries like India for as low as $68 to $136 for a 12-week treatment course.

“We know from our experience treating HIV over the past decade and a half that treatment needs to be simple and affordable,” Malpani says in a Doctors Without Borders statement. “Full hepatitis C treatment needs to be available for no more than $500 per person.”

In recent comments on the issue, Gilead does not appear to be ready to capitulate to these calls for lower prices. Instead, the company has indicated that, once it finalizes licensing for the drug in India, it would be incumbent upon Indian generic producers to offer competitive pricing on Solvadi, not only to make it more affordable, but also to gain a market advantage in India: ”We’ll be working probably with three to five different companies,” Gregg Alton of Gilead told The Hindu Business Line. “We leave it up to the Indian companies to bring the price down, should they choose to do that.”

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