Bangladeshi drugmaker offers Hepatitis C solution for 45 countries//
Gilead, a US-based drugmaker, which has made billions of dollars over its blockbuster range of Hepatitis C drugs is facing an unconventional challenger a little known Bangladeshi drugmaker, Beacon Pharma, reports Economic Times.
It says Beacon has become the first generic drug company in the world to produce copycat versions of Gilead<SNG-QTS>s newly launched Epclusa (Sofosbuvir + Velpatasvir) -- a drug used to treat all types of Hepatitis C infections.
Considered one of the revolutionary drugs, Epclusa reportedly has a cure rate of 95 per cent, but with a tag of $75,000 it is considered out of reach to even the wealthy.
Economic Times report published on Wednesday said that Beacon, going by its past launches of Hep C drugs, would look at pricing the drug one-tenth less than that of its originator.
<DBL-QTS>Our brand will be known as SOFOSVEL, this will be the first generic launch of this drug,<DBL-QTS> Monjul Alam, senior vice-president of Beacon Pharma, was quoted to have said from Dhaka.
According to the report, the combination of Sofosbuvir+ Velpatasvir which was approved by the USFDA in June is considered as a path breaking therapy that can be used by even the harshest genotype of patients suffering from the disease. Gilead, which has faced flak for its pricing of other Hep C drugs, has priced this drug lower than its other products.
The emergence of companies like Beacon, medical experts say, is also a result of unaffordability of these drugs even in developed nations, ET report pointed out.
<DBL-QTS>There is bound to be crossborder movement of any goods that costs $1 in one country and $1,000 in other,<DBL-QTS> Andrew Hill of department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics of University of Liverpool, was quoted to have said.
Reportedly, Beacon is hoping to reach out to patients from 45 countries across the world, including India, through its patient support programme which allows patients to directly purchase the drug from the manufacturer.