Breast cancer drug price prevents access for women in SA
Many women in South Africa who need breast cancer drug trastuzumab (marketed as Herceptin in SA) cannot access it due to the high price charged.
Members of the Fix the Patent Laws campaign picketed outside pharmaceutical company Roche on 31 March to highlight the excessive price of a life-saving breast cancer medicine. These members include Advocates for Breast Cancer, the Cancer Alliance, the Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA), Doctors without Borders, amongst many others.
Women with a specific form of breast cancer, HER2 positive, require a medicine called trastuzumab (marketed in South Africa as Herceptin). In the private sector, a 12-month course of Herceptin costs approximately R485 800, or more if higher dosing is required. Roche is able to charge such a high price as it holds multiple patents on the drug, which may block cheaper biosimilars from being sold in South Africa until 2033.
“I was diagnosed with HER2 breast cancer in 2013,” explains Tobeka Daki. “Despite it being recommended by my doctor, my medical aid declined to cover Herceptin claiming that it was too expensive. There’s no way I could afford the half a million-rand price tag. Without access to Herceptin my cancer has spread and last year I was diagnosed with bone cancer of the spine. This medicine is a last hope for patients like me. Chemo alone isn’t enough.”
The Fix the Patent Laws demanded that Roche should drop the price of trastuzumab so that all women who need it can have access to it. They said that this must include prices in both the public sector and the private sector. They also demanded that Roche should abandon all the secondary patents it holds on trastuzumab in South Africa. Most of these secondary patents were not granted in other countries and should not be granted here. These secondary patents may provide Roche with market exclusivity in South Africa for at least ten years longer than in countries like the United Kingdom, the United States, South Korea and India.
“Should Roche fail to drop the price of trastuzumab to a level where all women who need it can have access to it, we will ask the Department of Health to grant a compulsory license that will allow for the use of more affordable biosimilar versions of trastuzumab that are shown to be safe and effective,” says Salome Meyer of Advocates for Breast Cancer.
Trastuzumab is just one medicine identified by the Fix the Patent Laws campaign to be priced out of reach of those in need. “Appealing to Roche is just a step in our advocacy efforts,” says CANSA CEO, Elize Joubert. “We plan to highlight and fight for a number of cancer medicines that will help people live longer. Ultimately fixing South Africa’s patent laws will enable people living with cancer and many other diseases to have access to the medicines they need at affordable prices.”
Fixing South Africa’s patent laws will enable women living with HER2 positive breast cancer and other diseases to have access to the medicines they need at affordable prices.
*Article supplied by Doctors Without Borders (MSF). Follow them on Facebook and Twitter for more groundbreaking initiatives.
