Patient Advocates Petition 4 Governments to Open Path for Cystic Fibrosis Generics

Patient advocates around the world are asking the governments of South Africa, India, Ukraine, and Brazil to suspend Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ patents for TriKafta, a treatment for cystic fibrosis (CF). The treatment, which checks in at a whopping annual price of $326,000 in the US, is prohibitively expensive and out of reach of most patients in low- and middle-income nations.

According to , “The activist coalition’s strategy mainly hinges on compulsory licenses, a World Trade Organization provision that allows governments to permit someone else to produce a patented product or process without the consent of the patent owner. That’s the route the patients and activists are taking in South Africa, Ukraine and Brazil, where petitions were submitted Monday. If granted, those governmental bids could secure access to more affordable generics of Trikafta.”

To read more, click here.

(Source: Fierce Pharma, February 7^th, 2023)