Pharmaceutical companies offer cheaper medicines to developing nations

Pharmaceutical companies are increasingly making life-saving medicines affordable for economically weaker regions including Africa, Latin America, and parts of Asia.

The Access to Medicine Foundation, a research non-governmental organisation, published its tenth index tracking how major pharmaceutical firms provide access to innovative drugs in poor countries. Marijn Verhoef, the director at the foundation, says that providing affordable medicine to these regions was not a priority for corporate executives twenty years ago.

Instead of occasional philanthropic programs, the responsibility for access in low and middle-income countries now sits with the highest levels of pharmaceutical management. Companies are addressing affordability during the development phase of new drugs. In some cases, they partially waive patents in specific regions so local manufacturers can obtain licenses to produce cheaper generic versions. Gilead provides a current example with its new HIV injection called lenacapavir.

While the original drug costs over 28,000 dollars per person per year in the United States, Gilead allows other manufacturers to produce a cheaper version for 40 dollars per injection for 120 low and middle-income countries. In South Africa, where approximately 8 million people live with HIV, researchers like Linda-Gail Bekker of the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation say this affordable version is vital. Currently, the expensive version is available only on a small scale through the Global Fund.

Bekker notes that while the injection could protect young women who face high risks of infection, the reduction in American aid money has left fewer resources for education and other parts of the fight against HIV. Verhoef hopes that this model of making drugs affordable during development becomes the standard for treating diseases like cancer and diabetes in Africa.