Several advocacy groups have filed a complaint with antitrust authorities in Brazil, alleging Gilead charged “abusive” prices for a hepatitis C treatment and asked the government to fine the company, in addition to issuing a compulsory license so that lower-cost versions can be made available.
In their filing, the groups argue that “unlawful conduct” carried out by Gilead “clearly affects the public interest,” because the prices charged by the drug maker led the government to ration the Sovaldi medication. This purportedly contributed to nearly 6,000 deaths from the disease between 2015 and 2017, according to documents filed with the Administrative Council for Economic Defense, or CADE (in English and Portuguese).
“We have a history of deaths, rationed distribution and waiting lines for a medicine that can cure the disease and is effectively recommended by World Health Organization to address a serious global health threat,” Eloisa Machado, an attorney with the Human Rights Advocacy Collective, one of the groups that filed the complaint, said in a statement.
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