Hep C Discussion Forum

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.