Essential Medicines News

Follow-up to Fighting hepatitis C with “ethical pharmaceuticals”

Patents, argue the drug giants, are their lifeblood. They have to keep the prices of their drugs high as long as possible - at least in the rich countries - in order to recoup the vast costs of inventing and developing new medicines. Without their cutting-edge research, we won’t have breakthroughs in cancer or heart disease which allow us to live longer, happier lives.

But does it really cost $800m to bring an innovative new drug to market, as the companies insist? That’s a fraught issue. Critics argue that this hefty price tag not only includes losses on drugs that don’t make it, but also - and more questionably - the costs of marketing and advertising, which, these days, are higher than the spend on research and development.

So the real issue here is whether the multinationals can survive the arrival of a new model of drugmaking, which cuts costs to the bone. And the answer is that of course they can. They have had a very lucrative monopoly for a very long time, underpinned by the premise that they are doing good for humanity. Well, they are - but only a section of humanity - their shareholders and patients in the affluent world.

It’s about time they had competition.