Big pharma's profiteering holds back drug supply

Nationalise big pharma!, photo (public domain) (Click to enlarge)

Jon Dale, secretary, Unite union Nottinghamshire NHS branch (personal capacity)

All over the world, intensive research is taking place to find drugs to treat Covid-19. Good options would be finding existing drugs already used to treat other conditions. They would be quicker to take through safety trials and scale up production.

But how much would they cost? One possible combination of drugs is sofosbuvir/daclatasvir, which is used to treat Hepatitis C. A course of treatment in the United States costs $18,610. Liverpool University research shows the treatment could be produced for $5 - just 39 cents a day - and still make the pharmaceutical company 10% profit!

Another combination known as Kaletra, made by AbbVie and used for HIV, sells for $503 in the US - but could be produced for $4 a course. Pirfenidone, made by Roche, sells for $9,606 a course in the USA, but could be sold for $31 - $1.09 a day - at a profit.

The giant pharmaceutical corporations all over the world need to be in public ownership, not run for profit. Democratic control by medical experts, scientists, trade unions, communities affected by diseases and socialist governments could coordinate research and manufacturing capacity. Socialist planning would end today's blatant profiteering.

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