United States (US) headquartered pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences, is being accused of engaging in inhuman practices of holding on to patents for certain lifesaving drugs, a situation that has condemned millions to new HIV infections and premature deaths.
By Kudakwashe Pembere
Some of the practices include ever-greening of medicine patents like Truvada which has been in use as a pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in many countries like Zimbabwe as well as opening the license for the generic production of the hepatitis C drug Harvoni to all low- and middle-income countries.
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), Africa Bureau Director Advocacy, Policy & Marketing Ms. Oluwakemi Gbadamosi said Gilead has been holding on the patents of Truvada, a PrEP drug for longer than it should, a process called evergreening.
Gilead continues to hold patents for years, decades of life saving medication both for HIV and even Hepatitis, cryptococcal meningitis something we know kill thousands of people despite the fact there is treatment for it. Even people living with HIV are also at risk of cryptococcal meningitis but yet patents for these medication continue to be hoarded,” said Ms Gbadamosi.
She also said drug patents should have a life time of two decades after filing so that it’s approved to get generic.
“We see that companies like Gilead when they approach that time date, they do some small alterations, putting maybe a small external tweak like a strip on the pill or a small chemical alteration to elongate the period of the patency. With this stunt they continue to have monopoly on this medication and refusing to go generic.
With many countries transitioning to middle income economies, Gilead has removed some of them from accessing a cheap generic version of a Hepatitis C.”
Gilead has however been refusing to open licensing of hepatitis drugs for the production of a generic version of Harvoni. Of course, if you are refusing to let go of licensing it means that most LMICs will not be having access to the generic version.
A single Harvoni pill costs US$1 000. If you were to do 12 weeks of treatment, at a retail price that is over US$90 000 in the US. Now the generic version for Harvoni is US$4 in India. But according to Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) Gilead has excluded at least 15 middle income countries the generic version of this Hepatitis C drug.
“So just cast your mind back for a moment, if a pill costs US$1 000, let’s not forget that pharmaceutical companies generate a lot of profits from medical companies, we are talking about billions of dollars,” she said.
AHF Zimbabwe country director Dr Enerst Chikwati said Zimbabwe is affected already by inability to access COVID-19 drug remdesivir which is manufactured by Gilead. He also said while Zimbabwe is said to be progressing towards becoming an Upper Middle-Income economy, it may lose out on accessing these generic drugs which are cheaper.
“As Zimbabwe we are really pushing towards upper middle income economy. We are pushing and it is good news for us as a country. It is excellent. It is very exciting. But unfortunately, that is where the battle starts. Number one, you will be excluded from this issue of generic medicines. As an upper middle-income country, you can’t access these generic medicines,” Dr Chikwati said.
“So, you are talking about US$90 000. Once you reach there, then you have to get the US$90 000. They will say we know you are rich, you can afford this. You have to give us the US$90 000 for the hepatitis C.”
Dr Chikwati also said the country may also lose out on much of the funding which comes from donor partners such as Global Fund if it reaches the middle-income economy as it will be perceived as capable of buying the expensive medicines.
“So we are coming there as Zimbabwe. This is not just in the US. As soon as we reach the Upper middle economy, then we can’t access generic medicines. And unfortunately, as soon as you reach the upper middle-income economy, most donor funds they reduce. As soon as you reach that, they say you have got enough funds for example, one good example is Venezuela, and we are doing some advocacy in Venezuela.
“It is not really that rich but because in terms of their per capita, they were told you are upper middle income, we can’t give you even from Global Fund. You can’t access because you are an upper middle income country. So they are faced with one problem of not being able to access generic medicines and the other one is to say the donors won’t be able to give you money. And you have to fork out from your own pocket. So this one is going to affect us once we reach upper middle income. I’m not saying let us not get there.
