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The use of generic medications for hepatitis C

Hepatitis C, hepatitis B, HIV, TB and malaria are the five major causes of infectious disease death worldwide. In a breakthrough that rivals the invention of penicillin, drugs that cure hepatitis C, with minimal side effects and high success rates, have reached the market, but, in what must be one o...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Freeman, James A. D., Hill, Andrew
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5108470/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27306303
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/liv.13157
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author Freeman, James A. D.
Hill, Andrew
author_facet Freeman, James A. D.
Hill, Andrew
author_sort Freeman, James A. D.
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description Hepatitis C, hepatitis B, HIV, TB and malaria are the five major causes of infectious disease death worldwide. In a breakthrough that rivals the invention of penicillin, drugs that cure hepatitis C, with minimal side effects and high success rates, have reached the market, but, in what must be one of the greatest tragedies of modern times, these life‐saving medications are not being deployed on a mass scale. Pharmaceutical patents are gifted to private corporations by governments for the dual purposes of protecting R&D expenditure and encouraging innovation. Unfortunately the monopoly pricing power these patents provision currently lacks adequate checks and balances, is open to abuse, and is quite clearly being abused. The sort of legislative changes required to deliver on the original goals of pharmaceutical patents will take years or even decades to eventuate. Parallel importation of generic medication offers hope to the millions of patients with HCV unable to afford access to vastly overpriced originator medications. Doctors prescribing and monitoring patients taking generics can take comfort from the fact that the REDEMPTION trial results show, like the HIV generics that came before them, that HCV generics deliver robust clinical results.
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spelling pubmed-51084702016-11-16 The use of generic medications for hepatitis C Freeman, James A. D. Hill, Andrew Liver Int Debates in Hepatology Hepatitis C, hepatitis B, HIV, TB and malaria are the five major causes of infectious disease death worldwide. In a breakthrough that rivals the invention of penicillin, drugs that cure hepatitis C, with minimal side effects and high success rates, have reached the market, but, in what must be one of the greatest tragedies of modern times, these life‐saving medications are not being deployed on a mass scale. Pharmaceutical patents are gifted to private corporations by governments for the dual purposes of protecting R&D expenditure and encouraging innovation. Unfortunately the monopoly pricing power these patents provision currently lacks adequate checks and balances, is open to abuse, and is quite clearly being abused. The sort of legislative changes required to deliver on the original goals of pharmaceutical patents will take years or even decades to eventuate. Parallel importation of generic medication offers hope to the millions of patients with HCV unable to afford access to vastly overpriced originator medications. Doctors prescribing and monitoring patients taking generics can take comfort from the fact that the REDEMPTION trial results show, like the HIV generics that came before them, that HCV generics deliver robust clinical results. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2016-06-16 2016-07 /pmc/articles/PMC5108470/ /pubmed/27306303 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/liv.13157 Text en © 2016 The Authors. Liver International Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.
spellingShingle Debates in Hepatology
Freeman, James A. D.
Hill, Andrew
The use of generic medications for hepatitis C
title The use of generic medications for hepatitis C
title_full The use of generic medications for hepatitis C
title_fullStr The use of generic medications for hepatitis C
title_full_unstemmed The use of generic medications for hepatitis C
title_short The use of generic medications for hepatitis C
title_sort use of generic medications for hepatitis c
topic Debates in Hepatology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5108470/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27306303
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/liv.13157
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