Gilead to Sell Solvadi® Hep C Cure -- In Egypt (Just Like In India) -- At About $10 Per Pill. . . . Vs. $1,000 In US

Sunday morning fare: how the eradication of one public health crisis in Egypt -- led to another. And now, US pharma is pitching in to solve the second crisis.

So, this story (from our perspective) begins in the 1970s, when public health officials undertook a very broad based effort in Egypt to eradicate the scourge borne of unclean water known as schistosomiasis. Since at least the first century BC, Egyptians have been dying of the wasting disease. It is trasmitted by fresh water worm larvae usually transported by snails. By the middle of the last century nearly one per cent of Egypt's population was known to be infected. So a humane effort was undertaken to eradicate it. [Clean drinking and bathing water have eradicated it in the post-industrial world.]

In Egypt in the 1970s, the most cost-effective treatment was a simple one dose injection, and in order to conserve resources, Egyptians reused what turned out to be dirty (Hep C contaminated) needles -- to treat perhaps hundreds of thousands of schistosomiasis sufferers. These people, of course, in turn, developed Hep C in the 1980s and beyond, leaving Egypt with yet-another crushing public health burden -- now, nearly 1.2 percent of Egypt's population carries Hep C.

With Gilead's new all-oral drug launch, the eradication of Hep C is within reach for Egypt -- in reach, except for the $84,000 price tag, per patient. [In fact, Congress is now asking (and pointedly so) after that figure, here in the US.] So it is good news for access to medicines advocates at local Egyptian Doctors Without Borders offices that Gilead has struck a $10 per pill deal to treat Egypt's poor [and similar deals are in process in India and China]. Even so, $900 (the full course of the Egypt-priced treatment) is likely beyond the reach of half of those carrying Hep C. It does mean about one half of one per cent of Egypt's overall population may be cured of the disease, though. "Every little bit helps," right? Every little bit. . . and this is monumental -- Gilead will cut the burden of Hep C in half in Egypt, and pretty quickly so.

From local Egyptian papers, as of Saturday morning, US time -- do go read it all:

. . . .Gilead Sciences, facing mounting criticism over the high price of its new hepatitis C pill Sovaldi, has offered to supply the medicine to Egypt at a 99% discount to the US price.

While the drug will still cost $900 for a 12-week course of treatment, that is a fraction of the $84,000 charged for a course of treatment in the United States. . . .

Gilead said it was “pleased to have finalised an agreement” for the introduction of Sovaldi in Egypt, which has the highest prevalence rate of hepatitis C in the world.

“We believe Sovaldi could have a major impact on public health in Egypt by significantly increasing the number of people who can be cured of hepatitis C,” Gregg Alton, head of corporate and medical affairs at Gilead, said in an emailed statement. . . .

While the percentage of Egyptians suffering with Hep C is the highest on the planet, by far the greatest absolute number of people with the disease live in India, and in China. This is plainly the right thing to do -- and both China and India already have secured similar agreements from Gilead, if memory serves. Well-done Gilead, and CEO Milligan.

And almost inexplicably -- it is snowing here again -- at nearly the end of March. Time to stay by the fire and read a good book -- say one on what happens when a wealthy US scion disappears, in 1961. . . in what was Dutch New Guinea. . . and we learn a half century later that he had been honored with local ancestor worship practices. That is. . . he was. . . made dinner (both meanings plainly intended).