The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
February 16, 2017

Patients' Advocates Seek Life-Saving Generic Hepatitis C Drugs
--------------------------------------------------------------

In medical news, patients' advocates have launched legal challenges to
patents on hepatitis C drugs in India and Argentina, saying
pharmaceutical companies are profiting from monopoly prices that leave
millions unable to afford life-saving medications. In a statement,
Médecins Sans Frontières, or Doctors Without Borders, said, "There are
80 million people worldwide living with hepatitis C, and we need a wide
range of combination treatments available at an affordable price. With
patents blocking generic competition, treatment remains prohibitively
expensive in many countries."


.