AHF, stakeholders advocate open market for generic HIV, hepatitis drugs

By Tobias Lengnan Dapam

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) and other stakeholder in the country have advocated open market for generic HIV and hepatitis drugs.

The stakeholders who stated this on Tuesday in Abuja, said open license for the generic production of HIV and hepatitis C drugs to low- and middle-income countries, will ease production and create access.

While urging Gilead, a pharmaceutical company based in the United States to halt evergreening patents right on Truvada and other retroviral drugs, the stakeholders said it will help in control of diseases.

Specifically, Country Program Director of AHF, Dr Echey Ijezie said for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gilead should also sell or license remdesivir for generic distribution at a nonprofit price.

“License technology for the production of treatment for cryptococcal meningitis to generic manufacturers and Link executive compensation to the impact on positive public health outcomes and access to medicines in developing countries”.

He argued that Gilead is notorious for exploiting patent monopolies on blockbuster drugs to enrich itself and its shareholders.

“The research and development are often funded by U.S. taxpayers, but for their generosity, the public is rewarded with astronomical drug prices”.

While citing instances, Ijezie said a highly effective hepatitis C drug costs $1,000 per pill, and a 12-week course of treatment has a retail price of over $90,000 in the U.S.

“A generic version of the same drug costs only $4 per pill in India, but according to Médecins Sans Frontières, Gilead has excluded 50 middle-income countries from access to the generic, discounted price”.

“These excluded countries include Jamaica, Tunisia, the Philippines, Ukraine, and Venezuela, among others”.

“More recently, a group of nearly 150 nongovernmental