– credit, National Cancer Institute
A Bangladeshi pharma company will soon release a generic version of an expensive drug for cystic fibrosis that will allow hundreds of patients worldwide to access treatment.
The only pharmaceutical option available for cystic fibrosis has for years been a combination treatment called ETI (elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor) priced between $300,000 and $370,000.
Drug discovery, testing, and complying with regulation costs a company $2.6 billion per drug on average in the United States. For context, it takes substantially less money to explore, develop, and run a world-class mining operation.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals, the American company which holds the patent for manufacturing ETI, has specifically said the price of the drug reflects an attempt by the company to recoup the losses it sustained while creating it.
Even if the company could or wanted to sell it at a loss, that would mean siphoning money from other drug development programs, of which the company currently has 10 ongoing for a variety of diseases.
Now, Bangladeshi pharma company Beximco will be offering a generic brand ETI for just $6,750 a year for adults, and around $2,000 per year for children, putting life-saving treatment within reach of thousands of patients.
Cystic fibrosis causes a buildup of mucus in the lungs that can lead to infection, and often death in children and young adults. Diagnoses often come with a warning to the parent to not become overly attached to their child.
The Guardian, reporting on the Vertex/ETI/cystic fibrosis beat, detailed that following the creation of a generic brand in Argentina, some physicians would run reduced dose treatment programs to ensure patients who could afford ETI treatment would get the most out of it. Some would even collect leftover doses to distribute to lower income patients.
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Trikafta, the name-brand version of ETI produced by Vertex Pharma, is slowly becoming more available—for example in South Africa, where, following sizable patient campaigning, some insurance providers will cover its cost under certain plans.
Bangladesh, as a “least developed country,” is excluded from some international intellectual property laws, and a group of patient/advocate campaigners approached Beximco with the idea of creating a generic brand ETI, as it would be protected from legal repercussions.
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Available from this spring, it will cost around 99.5% less than Trikafta.
“We were sitting there with our calculator, working out the exchange rate, and we were like—‘We can afford that. We could afford that!’—it’s a celebration from start to finish,” Carmen Leitch, a South African mother to 2 sons, one of whom has cystic fibrosis, told the Guardian.
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