2 ms·
> Gilead, the drug's manufacturer, has risen the price of the drug from $6 to $1600 a month. Your premise is correct, that the elevated price is harming the ca
by adventured 8y ago
> Gilead, the drug's manufacturer, has risen the price of the drug from $6 to $1600 a month.
Your premise is correct, that the elevated price is harming the cause of fighting HIV. Your cost figures are incorrect however.
In Canada, even their health system has approved generic Truvada at wholesale for $400 per month (Truvada is twice that in Canada). Your $6 figure is plain wrong. That's the lowest wholesale cost anywhere in the developed world at any point in the drug's history. That's not the cost that it started out at in the US. It was about $1,150 (average reimbursement rate) in 2009. Truvada brought in $567 million in sales in just 2005 alone, they didn't accomplish that at $6 per month in the US. Gilead further increased the wholesale price by 45% over six years, from 2012 to 2018.