The world is considered selfish for all the right reasons and what better example than the portrayal of its greedy character during a pandemic, a crisis that has taken the planet for a toss.
Until there wasn’t any proven medicine to cure or benefit in the treatment of Covid-19 all was well and there was no means to earn through the weaknesses of the common man. However, once Remdesivir, an anti-viral drug, rose to prove useful to treat patients, the vial costing Rs.500 climbed up to Rs.5, 800 overnight, i.e. ten times more than its usual price.
People speculated the education sector to have been transformed into a business, but the health department turning into trading has come off as something new and horrific, if anything.
Mylan, the company licensed to sell Remdesivir in India, has set the price point at Rs.4,800. Gilead, the California based company, has signed licensing deals with other companies in a bid to allow 127 countries to access the drug for their treatment. Mylan hasn’t confirmed the number of vials that would be required for the entire course of treatment and only given the price for a 100ml vial of the generic drug.
In June, Indian drug-making companies, Cipla Ltd and the privately functioning Hetero Labs Ltd, launched their versions of the medicine and ruled out their prices. Cipla set its drug cost at Rs.5, 000, naming it Cipremi, while Hetero stated Covifor, its generic drug, at Rs.5,400. Adding to this, the infamous black market is selling the drug for much higher than the already raised bar.
A local doctor from Hyderabad said that he would previously use Remdesivir to treat patients with cancer and HIV. The price point at the time was Rs.500 which was affordable and accessible by lower-middle-class people as well. However, the increased prices have forced him to use alternate drugs, robbing the poor of their better chance for survival.
However, this is the quote in India, while in other developed countries, the pharmaceutical company Gilead is making billions by squeezing money from their pockets. According to the drug-making company, each patient needs a five-day course of the Remdesivir which will cost them $2340, close to Rs.17, 500. This is the case in rich nations where the company feels that it can hike up its prices, forsaking the fact that not every patient is considerably rich to afford the exorbitant price of the drug. Also, the price is thrice more than that in India and many other under-developed or economically compressed countries.
When approached to explain this price range, the company said that it could have set a higher margin, the directive which is adopted by most pharmaceutical companies for a drug powerful enough to fight the deadly virus. However, it said that it aims to sell Remdesivir at a “lesser price” as it wants “all developed nations to be able to afford it.”
After furious debates over this cost, Gilead argues that Remdesivir is saving $12,000 per patient by shortening their stay at the hospital, hence the price at which they are offering the drug is “comparatively cheaper and correct.”
Bloomberg Quint quoted Geoffrey Porges, an analyst at SVB Leerink LLC saying to his clients that the cost “is within the reasonable range, and should contribute significantly.”
A few advocates, including consumer-rights group Public Citizen, said that the price of the drug should instead be $1 per day which was called “unrealistic price point” by Daniel O’Day, CEO of Gilead, in an interview.
Public Citizen, after calculating the manufacturing units, said that the drug could be produced at scale for this amount by generic drugmakers. Moreover, it stated Gilead’s costing as “offensive.”
Yet, O’Day supported the high price point terming it a balancing act. He reminded that companies work for profits and is working hard to manufacture enormous quantities of the drug in such less time which is also easy to administer during these terrible times when there is no sign of a solid cure.
The Institute for Clinical and Economic Research of the US which checks the cost-effectiveness of drugs had earlier said that Gilead’s price of Remdesivir is “largely in line” with its estimate of $2,800 per treatment. However, it lowered its price point after the cheaper variant dexamethasone was found to deliver good results by decreasing the chance of death in patients with COVID-19.
Nevertheless, the argument is continuing regarding the pricing as some experts also say that without any thorough research and limited available data, the outrageous cost stands unjustified.
“I do not think remdesivir data are worth this price or the hype it has gotten,” Inmaculada Hernandez, an assistant professor of pharmacy and therapeutics at the University of Pittsburgh, said in an email.
Depending upon the population of people who would need the drug, say 1%-1.9%, Gilead would see a profit of around $7.12 billion to $14 billion.
It should be noted, that the high prices of the drug are because the cost hasn’t been capped by the Indian government, due to which companies are selling the drug freely at whatever price they want.
The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), the agency which regulates the prices of pharmaceutical drugs in India, hasn’t mentioned a cap for the prices of Remdesivir.
Zee News quoted sources saying that an advisory can be expected to be issued to companies for lowering the prices. However, this capping may also lead to a shortage of medicine in the market giving to its low price.
With a lot of the Indian population being unable to pay the bills due to their financial situation, the poor are the ones suffering the most and dying of the disease. Experts warn that these costs play a major role in deciding the prices for future medicines and treatments in the world.
