Tahir Amin, DipLP, co-founder and director of intellectual property of Initiative for Medicines, Access, and Knowledge, discusses how his organization has helped bring down drug costs.
Transcript:
How has your work affected access to and the cost of HIV therapies?
I think we’ve seen the cost come down significantly, and a lot of that is because of the advocacy, the patient community, and global health organizations putting this issue on the agenda.
I do believe the newer generations of drugs are still farther out of reach, particularly for middle-income countries. For example, a number of least-developing countries are getting included in access programs or licenses, so those countries are getting some of the benefits of the work that’s being done; however, a number of middle-income countries are being left out since they’re emerging markets.
So, those countries are facing a big crisis in terms of accessing these drugs at affordable prices. I think that’s where a lot of the work has to be concentrated now, because there’s been a tradeoff where pharmaceutical companies have said, “Well, we’ll give to the least-developing countries but keep the bigger markets to ourselves.” So, the prices are still around $5000 to $7000, and there’s more poor people living in middle-income countries than almost anywhere else. That’s where the crisis really lies and if we don’t solve that problem than we’re going to be facing another HIV crisis, as we did in the early days.
IGBA 2023: Dr Monique Mansoura Highlights the Intersection of Geopolitical Issues, Biopharma
February 19th 2023COVID-19 allowed governments to critically examine the biopharma space to increase access to vaccines, but there's still a way to go, according to Monique Mansoura, PhD, MBA, executive director of global health security and biotechnology at the MITRE Corporation, at the International Generic and Biosimilar Medicines Association’s annual meeting.
Dr Fran Gregory Sizes Up the US Adalimumab Market: Will Biosimilars See Success?
September 17th 2023On this episode of Not So Different, Fran Gregory, PharmD, MBA, vice president of emerging therapies at Cardinal Health, analyzes the adalimumab market so far in the United States and provides insight into how the market needs to adapt to accept these products and ensure lower drug costs for patients.
Dr Joseph Alvarnas Highlights the Current State of the Oncology Biosimilar Market
November 9th 2022Joseph Alvarnas, MD, vice president of government affairs at City of Hope and chief clinical adviser of AccessHope, explains what the recent FDA approvals of Stimufend and Vegzelma, 2 oncology biosimilars, says about the current state of the oncology biosimilar space.
Expert Opinion: What Factors Will Have the Greatest Impact on US Adoption of Humira Biosimilars?
April 12th 2022Jeffrey Casberg, vice president of pharmacy at IPD Analytics, weighs in on the factors he thinks will most affect market share among adalimumab biosimilars when they enter the US market in 2023.