Aids Healthcare Foundation Nigeria has called on big pharmaceutical companies especially Gilead Science Inc to stop their quest for huge profit and consider the lives first.
AHF is a global nonprofit organization providing cutting-edge medicine and advocacy to over 1.7 million people in 45 countries.
Director, Policy, Advocacy and Marketing, AHF Africa Bureau, Ms Oluwakemi Gbadamosi, who said this ata press conference Tuesday in Abuja, said that big pharmaceutical companies over the years continue to put their need for profit before the lives of millions of people.
While admitting that there is a need for businesses to make profit, Gbadamosi insisted it should not be at the expense of people’s lives.
“What kind of profit will you be so willing to make that you are willing to jeopardize the lives of people to make that profit? Yes, when people go into business, the aim is to make profit but when you are using something like evergreening, that is not you being innovative, that is not making profit, that is exploitation.
“If you are blocking countries that you know ideally cannot be able to afford these medications, and you are blocking them from having access to generics, it is all about making more money, you are not thinking of their lives,” she said.
For the AHF Advocacy and Marketing Director, Africa Bureau, the focus of the Gilead should be on saving lives rather than making it difficult for millions of people to get treatment for life threatening ailments.
“Gilead is notorious for actually putting their profit before people’s lives. If you battling high prices of medication how can there be affordable healthcare?
“We need to put life before profit. You have 20 years to make all the profit that you need to make but what we see is that the likes of Gilead rather than allow the patent to go into generic, what they do is that they alter it. And it’s just very little alteration that allows them exclusivity and they continue to extend the lifespan of the patent, as long as a patent remains, its prices remain very high.
The NGO therefore called on Gilead and other big pharmaceutical companies to bring down the prices of their drugs that are overpriced, stop blocking access to generic medications so that low and middle income countries can access them, and put an end to the tactics like evergreening to extend patents that have reached the two decade mark.
“The more the greed of pharmaceutical companies like Gilead continues, the more it will be difficult for people to have access to medications that are life-saving. It will continue to be out of the reach of so many people.
“It’s one thing to make profit but it’s another thing to make astronomical profit that is not justified at all because at the end of the day the effective medications that you are producing are drugs that are supposed to save lives. If you continue to overprice drugs or you continue to hold unto patents, now, that is not conscious-able in any way.
“What we are calling out Gilead for is their overpricing of some life saving medications as well in addition to practices like evergreening, blocking licensing for production, and preventing certain countries from having access to generic drugs. There is no way you can justify that to say it is reasonable, to say it is reasonable, to say you are helping people. As it is now Gilead has the ability to determine who lives and who dies!
“We are saying the right way to go is to put the lives before the profits. If these people are not there, you are not going to make the profits from the vaccines that you are developing; you cannot make astronomical, exorbitant profits at the expense of peoples’ lives. It is not justifiable and there is no reason for it, if not greed. That is why we are saying Gilead, stop being greedy,” she explained.
In his remarks, the Country Programme Director, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) Nigeria, Dr Echey Ijezie, reiterated the need for Gilead to put an end to its tactics of evergreening as it would continue to make healthcare expensive and out of the reach of the common man.
Dr. Ijezie, noted that with evergreening, it would be impossible for low and middle income countries to produce anti-retroviral drugs.
According to the AHF Country Programme Director, putting an end to evergreening would not only open up patients in low and middle income countries to access the drugs, it would lead to improved access to healthcare. Evergreening is when a drug is about to expire, a modification is made on that patent and its patency is extended.
He said: “Evergreening should stop so that countries that have the capacity can produce the drugs.
“Generics should be opened for antiretroviral drugs. These drugs are very important, but when they are made in a very generic manner, these drugs will be affordable. There should be an opening up of the license so that low income countries can produce the drugs.
“We are talking about opening up of the patency by Gilead for anti-retroviral, anti-hepathitis C medications, and treatment for meningitis. Making sure there is improved access to these medications.
“This has been happening for many years, so that at the end of the day, there can be improved access to these medications,” he added.
