International Liver Conference: Activists Demand Affordable Hepatitis C Treatment
Pills cost pennies, greed costs lives.
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As the 49th International Liver Conference is officially starting, activist held a demonstration in the main hall to raise the issue of access to hepatitis C treatment in low and middle-income countries. Their protest targeted Gilead whose recently-approved direct-acting antiviral, Sovaldi, sells for USD $84,000.
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Activists chanted, "pills cost pennies, greed costs lives", "sovaldi, so expensive" and "let doctors cure people".
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Symbolically, activists lay dead under golden blankets while others distributed golden pills representing Solvaldi, which Gilead sells for USD $1,000 per pill.
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They unfurled a banner that read:" Gilead’s HCV drug sofosbuvir approved by the EMA and FDA, but accessible for how many?"
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