Informative article, I hope a cure for Egypt’s large infected population can be achieved.

Unfortunately, Mr Tawfik is asking a logical question which only makes sense to those with a grasp of moral decency.

In return for selling sofosbuvir cheaply, Gilead asked that Egypt impose strict restrictions on every bottle to prevent the drug from being sold on the black market and undermining its business elsewhere.

All pills must be dispensed by government pharmacies, for example, and all patients must turn in an old bottle to get a fresh one. Those receiving new bottles must immediately unscrew the cap, break the seal and take the first pill in front of the pharmacist — making it nearly impossible to resell the bottle.

“Subsidising” the low-middle income countries, Gilead can play the corporate compassionate-card, while maintaining its “real” first-world profit arm.

f–k the middle class westerners with their feet up, sipping chardonnay while they bang on about human rights.
If you had F4 HCV, ascites, varices, emerging liver lesions, were warehoused for the last 12-24 months because you needed ifn free drugs to survive – so you could keep pushing one foot in front of the other to feed your kids. Would you stand in front of a pharmacist to take the first lifesaving pill out of a bottle – too right – I would.

Ive briefly read – Despite the rosy picture of HIV drugs access in India which compared to other poorer countries was a credit to their health system for so long – in recent times the supply to the poor has become more unstable; citizens are turning up to the distributors and finding particular drugs comprising their regime are variously unavailable, often replacing some for another or taking multiple doses of those available.. They are being told to return which often involves a long walk or bus ride from an outer location, if they take the time off to do this they lose their jobs. so what do you do – get your drugs, lose your job, lose your livelihood, then cant afford the drugs, lose your life OR keep your job, cant get to the distributor, forget the drugs, feed your kids till you lose your life. I am uncertain of the veracity, time frame or full story around this and though interested, haven’t had time to look further. Some are saying that it is because the generics are going out of the country. Lets pray the financial return ends up exponentially supplementing back to the poor. No doubt on the generic profits, a country like India can soon manage to upgrade the production and subsequent supply to the population and elsewhere fairly rapidly. But meanwhile the human toll may still be high. So Big Pharma’s stronghold on the “western” marketshare is still backfiring on the poor.

There appears some parallels to what is happening with HCV. Because this explosion seems to have unexpectedly happened overnight. Also the fact that the cheaper drug prices in the 91 countries Big Pharma have given India to supply at lower prices; are still too expensive for many poor workers – just like us trying to buy Gilead at prices comparable prices here. Are there FixHep activists in those very poor countries able to shame their Governments and embarrass big Pharma to achieve a better deal. Unlikely. The politics of healthcare or greed ?