Analysis: Fight for cheap drugs shifts from AIDS to new hepatitis pills

By Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) - A new battle is looming over access to antiviral medicines in developing countries - this time for treating hepatitis C - more than a decade after a global showdown over the price of AIDS drugs in Africa. Drugmakers like Gilead Sciences, whose product Sovaldi won U.S. approval this month with a $1,000 a day price tag, are under mounting pressure to strike deals to avoid a rerun of the disputes that stalled early access to HIV therapy. "Affordability is an urgent and pressing issue," World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Margaret Chan told Reuters during a visit to London. I hope we can learn from the lesson of HIV and find solutions without confrontations." In the 1990s, HIV/AIDS drugs costing more than $10,000 per patient a year were simply out of reach for millions of people in the developing world.



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