Truvada T.E.A.M.

Truvada TEAM (Toward Essential Accessible Medicine)

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What is a FAIR Price?

Pharma firms justify their high drug prices with the amount they spend on Research and Development (R&D). However, they do not disclose how they calculate their R&D investments. Thus, the answer to what is a fair price is out there but simply not accessible to the public. Big pharma, like Pfizer, claim spend on R&D over one billion pounds for one medication. Non-profit organisations (Doctors without borders; Drugs for neglected diseases initiative) researching and developing new medication themselves, need nearly 900 Million pounds LESS than big pharma. Increased R&D transparency could explain this difference. We would be very interested... 

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You know that you are passionate about your topic if you keep researching for it until late in the night!

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What can YOU do?

Everyone can help to make our world a fairer place. Here’s what YOU can do to increase availability of essential medicines worldwide. 

Create awareness: As a student, you are suited especially well to show universities your interests and demands

Take part in our letting-writing campaign! (Details will follow soon :-))

Protest for Human rights! (Right to Medicine)

Fight against stigmas! (People might be ashamed to ask for certain medication, e.g. HIV prevention such as Truvada)

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How can Pharma companies be responsible? Is that possible?!

Yes, it is possible for pharma companies to be responsible. :-) Our client, Farma ter Verantwoording (FtV) created a list of guiding principles to evaluate the extent pharmaceutical companies align with human rights principles for equitable access to medicines. Originally, these company practices have been developed in sight of the Covid-19 crisis and its accompanied necessity to provide vaccines and therapeutics worldwide. But not only during these extraordinary circumstances, we must create awareness about companies practices and morals at all times. FtV identified the following 4 principles in guiding companies regarding their responsibility towards access to medicines: 

(A) Commitments & Accountability

(C)  International Cooperation

(E) Equality, non-discrimination & equity

(T) Transparency

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Possible Solutions: Medicine available everywhere!

Adopt laws to ensure transparency on R&D costs

Ensure healthy competition and stop anti-competitive behaviour

Attach conditions to licenses on medicines developed with public money -> currently no guarantee on public return on public investments (PRPI)

Create better and transparent cooperation in negotiations (across countries)

Create awareness about problem -> universities should consider the issue when going into negotiations with pharmaceutical companies 

Abolish SPC system -> system is outdated 

European patent regulation to avoid national differences (see comparison between the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium)

Reduce the influence of pharma industry lobbyists

Covid-19 Company Practices (GCCP)

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Right to Medicine

Access to medicine is a fundamental element of the right to health, which is an essential human right and is necessary for living a life in dignity. The right to access medicine should be regardless of one’s economic, social, cultural, religious, or political background according to the United Nations. 

However, millions of people are unable to access medicine of good quality in a timely fashion, which is also affordable. This problem is especially prominent in developing countries, but also people in Europe are often unable to afford essential medical treatments or drugs. According to the UN, access to medicine is linked with the principles of equality and non-discrimination, transparency, participation, and accountability. So why is such an essential human right violated to an extent that the WHO declared it as a global issue?

The introduction of systems such as patents and SPC’s, which came into place to allow companies to re-earn the money they lost in the developmental face of a drug, has big negative impacts. Due to the monopoly a company can hold on to a drug for up to 25 years, the prices of such drugs skyrocket, which limits the access of many people as they simply cannot afford to buy it. It also leads to a medicine shortage in many countries, as they are unable to afford to buy the essential drug, limiting the access of medicines such as PrEP in entire countries. 

According to a recent study, improving the access to essential medicines could save up to 10 million people each year. Essential for this, is holding pharmaceutical companies accountable for their human right’s responsibility and highlighting the social costs unfair pricing can include.

Especially the inability to afford and access PrEP’s due to the monopoly Gilead has on Truvada comes at a high cost. Many people have to resort to DIY Prep, which can include Pill sharing or smuggling. The reason why people would go to such lengths is to ensure that they are protected is to allow themselves to be at ease during sex. Sexual health is a state of physical, mental, and social well-being in relation to sexuality, and being scared of being infected with HIV can have negative influences on one’s mental health. Studies show that increasing sexual health leads to the reduction of anxiety and depression among the population.

Overall, ensuring access to essential medicine is a human right everyone should be able to have, and the failure to provide it leads to enormous social costs including the suffering and the decrease of mental well being among the population. 

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Role of Universities

What role do universities play in the lack of access to medicine? Many life-saving drugs are in fact developed in campus laboratories, usually funded by the public. Due to this, universities could have the power to wield substantial leverage when they license their drugs to pharmaceutical companies and could pressure pharmaceutical companies into ensuring affordable prices. 

In fact, Truvada was developed in an American University, sponsored by the public, but sold to Gilead, who is currently holding a monopoly of PrEP in many countries. Therefore, although the public pays for the development of drugs such as Truvada, they still have to pay an enormous sum of money in order to access the medicine. Such prices are especially problematic considering, that pharmaceutical companies usually hold a monopoly for up to 25 years due to the patent regulations, allowing them to sell drugs at exorbitant prices and up to 1000x times the production costs.

Due to this, many organizations, such as UAEM, urge universities to take authority in the formulation of licensing agreements to ensure that everyone in need can afford and get access to essential medicine. Furthermore, the UAEM network suggests that all technologies developed by a university that has the potential to be further developed into a medicine, vaccine, or diagnostic should be licensed in a way that ensures affordable access in low-and middle-income countries. 

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What is Truvada?

Truvada is a commonly used PrEP(pre-exposure prophylaxis) that is used once per day by individuals at risk of HIV. Truvada, which was developed by Gilead, aid in lowering the chances of transmitting HIV or Hepatitis B through sex for people that are negative for HIV. PrEP such as Truvada are incredibly important as HIV is a virus that attacks the body’s immune cells, and is currently still uncurable, hence prevention plays a key role and PrEP has been found to be 99% effective at reducing sexual transmission of HIV. 

Truvada is in many countries the sole supplier of PrEP due to the patent Gilead holds on the formulation. Therefore, when someone is in need of PrEP, their physician can only prescribe them the Truvada drug. Although PrEP is incredibly important for one’s sexual safety, not all insurances cover the costs of the drug. The drug costs vary between countries, depending on whether Gilead still holds the patent for the PrEP formula or whether there are general PrEP’s available to the public.

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3 Countries - 3 Prices

Patents are ultimately regulated on a national base. Hence, there can be a lot of differences across countries as can be seen in the case of the HIV medication (PrEP) Truvada by Gilead Sciences. 

In the Netherlands, Truvada has not been granted an extension for their patent meaning other companies can produce the same medication. One box with 30 tablets cost around 20€ from a generic company. In Germany, it has been revoked in Summer 2020 and one box costs around 40€. With reimbursement, German patients need to pay a max of 10€. In Belgium, however, the patent remains still active and guess the price for the same number of tablets: 527,40€! Luckily, also Belgium patients can receive a reimbursement and need to pay a max of 11,90€. But still, health care insurance needs to pay this unreasonable price. In the very end, insurance companies transfer this task to their clients with increasing fees every year, which not everyone might be able to afford.

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Patents

To introduce the main problem we are tackling in our project we first need to introduce some basics. First of, PATENTS. These are actually a quite useful invention, however due to flaws in the current regulations can be easily misused! 

Patents are granted to protect interventions with a technical character so that others cannot make, use, or sell the intervention without permission. They are designed as an incentive for companies to devote resources to research and development (R&D), which can be very costly for pharmaceutical companies. However, during the time the patent is active, the companies can largely determine the price for their invention/medicine freely. Therefore, high prices and subsequently inaccessible medicine is closely tied with patenting. 

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Meet our clients

Introducing our first client Farma ter Verantwoording! The Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation aims to ensure that everyone is able to access medicine. They strive to educate pharmaceutical companies about their social responsibility and the necessity of fair pricing and distribution. THE PAF fights against unjustifiable price gouging by companies that abuse market monopolies or the evergreening system of patents. This amazing foundation is represented by their Chairperson Wilbert Bannenberg, who improved pharmaceutical systems in developing countries for over 35 years! He is also the person in contact with us, and provided us with a plethora of interesting articles and information.

Welcome our second client, Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM)! UAEM is an international student-driven organization working to improve access to and affordability of life-saving medicines, especially those researched and developed at universities with public funding. UAEM Maastricht, represented by Anindita Bhattacharjee and Myriam de Foer, wants to ensure that universities consider the needs of people worldwide when licensing their drugs to pharmaceutical companies and they advocate for academic research on neglected diseases. Regarding the Truvada project, UAEM in collaboration with FtV, aims to use the report on the PREP case to create awareness on the social implications of drug licensing in a social media campaign as well as to serve as the subject for a series of lectures/webinars

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Meet The Team!

Hello! I am Roberto, 23 years old and from Italy. I am currently completing the Master of Laws in International and European Tax Law at Maastricht University, while as an undergraduate I focused on European Law. During my academic endeavors, I acquired a thorough knowledge on the national legal system of the European Union member states, and my interest for human rights was fueled by the numerous courses taken on the subject. That is the main reason why I decided to participate in this ambitious project. 

As a member of the Truvada TEAM, I have the unique privilege to address the issue of essential medicines’ accessibility through legal procedures and the responsibility of pharmaceutical companies in this regard. Being a part of a tem whose work will make a positive impact in this sector provides me with enormous gratification.

As you can see from my clumsy attempt to navigate a boat in the picture above, in my spare time I like hanging out in nature and exercising outdoors. Furthermore, among my hobbies, practicing combat sports and reading novels stand out as my favorite activities.

Hey! I‘m Luisa, 23 years old and from Germany. I follow the research master tract in cognitive and clinical psychology with the focus on psychopathology. Academically, my major interest lies in neuropsychopharmacology. But what’s the point in doing research on drugs if not everyone in need can access them? 

I spend most of my free time with my friends, enjoying good food and drinks. But on Sundays, I turn into an 80 years old grandma who just wants her cup of coffee with a nice piece of cake. ☕️🍰

My name is Benedetta, I am 25 and I come from Italy.

I really like European matters. That is the reason why I am doing the Master in European Studies at Fasos. Before coming to Maastricht, I obtained a Master’s degree in Law, so you can call me jurist 🤓  Next year, I would like to move to Brussels and work as a policy consultant, in the pharmaceutical sector? Why not!

During free time, I love hanging out with friends, reading books and, as a good Italian, cooking nice dinners. Maybe if you are lucky enough once you will have the possibility to try my amazing carbonara!!  

Hey everyone! I’m Elias, I come from Syria and I’m 26. Currently, I am doing my master in biomedical sciences at FHML. I am really interested in healthcare from all aspects, starting from the innovation and exploration of human functions and medications, and ending with delivering the care and enhancing our quality of life. After my master, I would like to move into the field of public health and policy.  In my free time, I enjoy reading novels and non-fiction books, as well as cooking a meal with friends (as long as it is allowed by the measures), going on hikes, and embroidery every now and then!

Hello everyone!

I´m Céline, a 21-year-old Research Master student with the specialization on Psychopathology. I am incredibly passionate about human rights, and part of those is of course the right to be able to access medicine. As this project not only focuses on the social responsibility of pharmaceutical companies, but also on the legality of the evergreening of the drug Truvada, I was incredibly interested! I also loved the opportunity to work with people from other faculties on such a diverse project.

But more important here are some fun facts about me! One little secret I have that barely anyone knows is that I am completely unable to wink! Moreover, I have 2 little cats, but also adore every other kind of animal such as dogs, birds and red pandas. In my free time I love to educate myself more on social and political problems in the world, reading books and playing video games with friends.

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Welcome! 

We are the Truvada-TEAM (Towards Essential Accessible Medicine). Our team consists of Roberto, Benedetta, Céline, Elias, and Luisa. Yesterday, we mastered a puzzle together to strengthen our team cohesion. Temporarily we encountered some difficulties, but at the end we solved it together and had fun doing so! Looking forward for future challenges!

#team #PREMIUM #Truvada #fun