"Access" is a think-tank focused on access to new Hepatitis C treatments & prices. Represented in Western Europe & Eastern Europe/Central Asia.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that about 150 millions people are today chronically infected by the virus. It is also estimated that HCV-related liver complications kill 350,000 people annually. The arrival on the market of new DAAs (Direct Acting Antivirals) at the end of 2013 has set up an entirely new deal for people living with HCV. However the price has put them out of reach fo
r the majority, including for those considered not at an advanced stage of a liver-disease to be eligible for a treatment. While the registration of these new treatments should have been great news for millions of people across the world, the price of these new drugs has put them out of reach to those who need them most urgently. Inspired by the work undertaken in the field of HIV/AIDS in the past twenty years, by our activist colleagues in Thailand, Brazil, India, and in many other countries, we, people affected by chronic diseases, activists, experts and academics, are launching the organization Access, a think-tank, acting for a better understanding of legal mechanisms, price negotiation systems, and in order to increase the level of advocacy, campaign, strategic work, and global awareness on these issues, starting from western and eastern Europe. The current situation regarding HCV treatments is, we believe, a symptom of a more systemic problem and the aim of our organization will be to explore all means to reform pricing negotiation systems, the use of legal remedies, such as compulsory licensing and patent opposition, reform patent laws, and developing alternative sustainable solutions and systems in order improve the access to medical care. Given the context of the global economical crisis and the “austerity measures” undertaken by governments within the European Union, and given the low cost of production of these new drugs, it appears that agreeing on such high prices is nonsensical. Such an efficient treatment should be accessible to everyone who needs it. Instead of restricting the access to new treatments, these governments should consider alternative solutions, such as finding ways of negotiating a better price with firms, questioning and rethinking their national negotiation pricing systems for medicines, or use of other legal remedies and use generics. The scope of Access work will start in Europe, where the disparities in regards to access to medical services are huge, for instance between Ukraine, Greece and France, and where the most efficient health systems are currently under threat mainly due to the astronomical price of a few drugs and to the lack of political responses to this phenomenon.
