The
well-known international humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans
Frontières has strongly criticised the decision by US-based Gilead
Sciences to expand its existing voluntary licence agreement with eight
Indian generic drug-makers for sofosbuvir and ledipasvir to include its
investigational compound GS-5816, saying it will restrict access to the
drugs for people across the developing world.
''Gilead's anti-diversion programme not
only potentially jeopardises patient confidentiality and privacy, but
could also exclude many patients that may lack the citizenship and
identification papers that Gilead requires them to have in order to get
access to treatment.
''Gilead's programme introduces coercion and
policing upon medical providers and may result in treatment
interruptions for patients, leading to treatment resistance and
failure. As far as is known to MSF, such a programme, motivated solely
by commercial interests, is unprecedented,'' MSF said.
- See more at: http://www.domain-b.com/industry/pharma/20150128_hepatitis.html#sthash.REnGdQcH.dpufLabels: Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), sofosbuvir and GS-5816