NEW YORK/GENEVA/BALI, November 12, 2024 — At this year’s annual Union World Conference on Lung Health, more than 70 tuberculosis (TB) activists, including those with Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), took the stage during the opening ceremony to demand that medical test maker Cepheid and its parent corporation Danaher reduce the price of GeneXpert tests to $5 in low- and middle-income countries.
While Danaher reduced the price of the standard TB test by 20 percent in September 2023 from $10 to $8, the test used to detect the most-deadly form of TB, extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB), remains priced out of reach for many at $15 per test. Research commissioned by MSF in 2019 shows that GeneXpert cartridges could be produced and sold at a profit for less than $5 each. Cepheid and Danaher charge up to three times that for the XDR-TB, HIV, and hepatitis C tests, among others. Meanwhile, Cepheid received $252 million in public funding to develop the GeneXpert test.
Testing is essential as it’s the first step to diagnosing someone who is sick, getting them on the treatment they need, and preventing further spread of infectious diseases—especially in the places MSF works where health care services are often limited for those who fall ill.
Stijn Deborggraeve, diagnostics advisor at MSF’s Access Campaign, said today:
“We’re here with the global TB community representing the voices of more than 200,000 people that have signed a petition demanding Cepheid and Danaher reduce the price of their medical tests in low- and middle-income countries so that more lives can be saved.
“For the majority of their tests, Cepheid and Danaher continue to charge triple the $5 that they could be selling each test for and still make a profit. This is unacceptable profiteering by the corporations, especially considering Cepheid and Danaher received $252 million in public funding to develop these tests.
“Cepheid and Danaher, it’s really time to do the right thing. It's time for $5 for each GeneXpert test.”
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News Nov 12, 2024
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