OCU calls for a meeting with the Minister of Health over the new hepatitis medicine

The treatment consists of one Sovaldi tablet daily for 12 weeks, to which must be added the cost of other drugs that have to be combined with this. Apparently there have been negotiations between the health ministry and the manufacturer, Gilead, over pricing, negotiations about which the public knows little. It seems that, finally, Spain will pay for each 12-week treatment with Sovaldi combined with Simeprevir (another new generation antiviral already authorized by the Ministry) about 43,500 euros.

Given this outrage, OCU believes that governments should not "play the drug companies’ game". Its function is to defend the public interest and ensure public access to the medicines we need, while ensuring the sustainability of the system. In specific cases, it could even promote the issuing of compulsory licenses that would allow their manufacture as generics, all totally legal if necessary. And all this without another minute’s delay in the treatment of patients with this drug as appropriate.

OCU believes that the transparency of the health care system and in this case as related to the financing of drugs and hospital pharmaceutical expenditure is an essential step in order to know if our public resources are being used efficiently, with the aim of ensuring universal access to quality health care. It has therefore launched a campaign about the transparency of hospital information, which is still running.