In 2019, we took on Vertex, a multinational US drug company, about their radically inflated drug pricing for cystic fibrosis treatment in the UK - and we won.
Now, we’re taking the fight for affordable treatment global - but we need your help to ensure justice is done.
In 2019 a group of parents in the UK joined forces with Just Treatment to win their children access to lifesaving cystic fibrosis (CF) treatment. Together we took on the US drug company, Vertex, and forced them to drop the unaffordable £104,000 price tag on the medicine - ensuring the lives of patients came before corporate profits. But thousands of people with CF around the world are still dying without access, so Just Treatment and Vertex Save Us are joining forces to take the fight for access to CF treatment global.
Vertex - a ruthless company charging £250,000 for life saving medication, which only 12% of patients are able to access.
Vertex developed their drugs with hundreds of millions of dollars from charitable donations and taxpayers, but their monopoly control of the medicines and eye-watering price tags (Trikafta, also known as Kaftrio, costs $311,000/£250,000 per patient per year in the US) have meant only 12% of people with CF have access. The medicines have a transformative effect for most patients, but life expectancy in places like India without good treatment or care is less than 15 years.
But as cystic fibrosis patients are dying without access, Vertex are getting unbelievably rich, with corporate executives taking home tens of millions of dollars in bonuses, and the company generating sales of $7.57 billion last year from CF drugs alone.
Vertex only sell Kaftrio in 21 countries around the world. And they've privately admitted that they're just not interested in many countries where they see no chance of making big profits. They've taken no steps to help the patients there - and without action thousands of children and young people will die without access. Children like Janco in South Africa, Vihaan in India, and Sofyia in Ukraine are getting sicker by the day and there is no help in sight.
By building public support, putting pressure on lawmakers, and sourcing high quality generics, we forced Vertex to drop their prices and strike a deal with the NHS.
After three years of pleading with Vertex to do the right thing and charge a fair price in the UK, it became clear to us that Vertex only care about their bottom line. So we hatched an effective plan to hit them where it hurts. We sourced a quality-assured generic supply of their medicines helping families to bring an end to Vertex's tactic of holding their child's life to ransom. We forced the government to threaten their monopoly - the thing that gives them their power and wealth. It worked. They dropped their price and struck a deal the NHS could afford.
That campaign helped thousands of patients in the UK - but we can't stop now. With tens of thousands more around the world in need of the drugs we want to take our fight for CF patients global - and stand up to the unethical behaviour right around the world. We know how to take on Vertex and win. With your help we can do it again.
The UK is only the start - now help us fight for fair and affordable medication across the world.
Here's how we're going to take on Vertex and win access for CF patients around the world:
- Hire a global campaigner who will help to coordinate with patients, families, and campaigns around the world - sharing our lessons so they can stand up to Vertex like we did
- Identify critical fights in key countries to demonstrate how a campaign that ramps up pressure on Vertex's monopoly can shift the power dynamic
- Help make affordable generic versions of these drugs a genuine alternative for health systems around the world and help to win a global test and treat strategy for everyone with cystic fibrosis
We must work quickly, but with your help we will save countless lives.
This is a truly critical moment - we have the drugs that could save the lives of tens of thousands of people. But they are locked away, with access only granted if it can make a rich corporation even richer. You can be the key that unlocks these medicines and helps get treatment to a child with cystic fibrosis whose lungs are failing them now. Please help them breathe by giving whatever you can. Over 100,000 lives depend on it.