Hepatitis C drug Sovaldi - currently one of the most costly and best-selling drugs in the world - is preparing to sell cheaper generic versions of the drug in poorer countries.
The drug, which costs $1,000 a pill in America, will be produced by generic drug makers to provide those suffering from Hepatitis C in developing countries access to treatment, reports the New York Times.
Hepatitis C is a liver disease that is spread through the contact of blood. Unlike Hepatitis A and B, Hepatitis C does not have a vaccine to prevent it. The disease becomes chronic to most people who contract Hepatitis C, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The disease grows in the body by infecting a liver cell and then uses the infected cells to make copies of itself. The drug Sovaldi attaches itself to the genetic information (called RNA), which stops the virus from multiplying.
Gilead Sciences, a California-based company, is producing a generic version of this Sovaldi drug to sell for only $10 in the developing world. The brand name drug costs $1,000 a pill in America.
"Really what we're trying to do here through the partnerships we've established is expand availability of chronic hepatitis C therapy, particularly in the developing world," Gregg H. Alton, Gilead's executive vice president, said at a news conference.
The generic drugs are expected to appear in India by the third quarter of 2015, Bhavesh B. Shah, director of international marketing at Hetero Drugs Limited, one of Gilead's Indian partners, tells the NY Times.
