Many Norwegian hepatitis C patients must wait a long time for treatment. One reason is the cost of expensive medicine due to a monopoly situation, according to Klassekampen newspaper.
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Between 15,000 and 20,000 Norwegians suffer from chronic hepatitis C. The treatment for the disease is a twelve-week course of medicine that costs around NOK 540,000 because the USA based pharmaceutical company, Gilead Sciences, has a monopoly on medicine in Norway, wrote the newspaper.
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Because of the cost, 60% of those living with hepatitis C don’t get access to the medicine until they already show clear signs of liver damage. The disease is particularly common among past and presently active drug addicts.
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Ronny Bjørnestad, leader of Prolar, an organization that, among other things, provides information about the disease, goes abroad for treatment. He found the exactly same medicines offered by a manufacturer in Bangladesh for 7,500 kroner.
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The USA’s Senate Finance Committee, in an understatement, said the price didn’t reflect research and development but a ‘revenue’ push. Forbes writer, Avik Roy, noted that the same hepatitis C treatment costs $900 (NOK 7500) a year in Egypt, and that US taxpayers are ‘picking up the tab since most US hepatitis C patients are uninsured, underinsured or imprisoned’.
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‘If this had been a disease that hit a more resourceful group, it would never have been accepted’, Bjørnestad said of the price tag attached to the medicine supplied in Norway.
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Olav Dalgard, chief of the Department of Infection Medicines at Akershus University Hospital said the prices in Norway are ‘immorally high’.
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‘If we had cheaper medicines, we would recommend the treatment for far more people at a much earlier date. This would prevent the possibility of further infection’, he said.
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Klassekampen newspaper has contacted Gilead Sciences for comment, but hasn’t received a reply.
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© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today
