Danaher, it's Time to put People
Tuberculosis is curable, yet 1.25 million people die of tuberculosis every year while Danaher grossly overcharges for diagnostic tests for the people who can least afford it.
FEATURED ACTION:
US: Congress is voting on a bill that will codify the foreign aid cuts. We need your help to protect global public health. We have a short peiod of time to tell our Senate representatives that this is unacceptable. Call now using PIH's call tool, email or join group advocacy session.
Tuberculosis is the World's Deadliest Infectious Disease.
A total of 1.25 million people died from tuberculosis (TB) in 2023, making it the deadliest infectious disease worldwide...
While an estimated 44 million lives were saved through TB diagnosis and treatment between 2010 and 2022, these resources are prohibitively expensive to the point that many who need them can’t afford it.
More than 2 in 5 patients with multidrug-resistant TB do not have access to proper testing to find out if their TB is a multidrug-resistant strain. As a result, over half of them end up receiving long, expensive treatments that won't even help.
Enter Danaher.
Danaher is a large U.S. corporation that owns many smaller biotech companies, including Cepheid. Cepheid designs and manufactures diagnostic tests. Their MTB/RIF GeneXpert test determines whether someone has tuberculosis and whether it is resistant to one antibiotic, and their MTB/XDR test determines if the infection is extensively drug-resistant or not, enabling effective treatment.
GeneXpert tests give fast and accurate results without the need for a fully equipped laboratory, which theoretically makes them ideal for use in countries with limited health care infrastructure, where results could otherwise take days or weeks to arrive.
Additionally, last year Danaher agreed to lower the price of their basic tuberculosis test to $7.97, a price they claimed to be at-cost. And to back up their claim, they promised to release an independent third-party audit of the cost to produce their test!
Sounds great, right?
Not Quite...
Danaher uses what many call a “printer-ink” business model when it comes to the GeneXpert testing system. While a printer is usually sold for a reasonable price, the ink is often extremely expensive with a high profit margin. Danaher prices GeneXpert tests in a similar way.
The reusable machines used to process these tests are moderately priced, but the single-use Xpert test cartridges are extremely expensive. Even though Danaher has agreed to reduce the price of their standard TB cartridges from $10 to $8 for low- and middle-income countries, they have not published the results of any audit. Without this audit, the best information available shows that GeneXpert tests cost less than $5 to produce.
Profits Over People.
Xpert cartridges for extensively drug-resistant TB are still priced at $15, and tests for other diseases including HIV, hepatitis, Ebola, and HPV cost up to $20. This is much higher than the production costs calculated as part of independent research, and 1.5 times the median weekly wage in countries like Sierra Leone. While Danaher has procrastinated on increasing transparency for their pricing, GeneXpert tests are still priced far higher than many can afford.
We call on Cepheid and Danaher to prioritize people’s lives over maximizing profits by increasing transparency and fulfilling their commitment to an independent third party audit.
Take Action:
- Post on social media using #PeopleOverProfits and #TimeFor5.
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Contact Danaher at investor.relations
@danaher.com or +1-202-828-0850.
FEATURED ACTION:
US: Congress is voting on a bill that will codify the foreign aid cuts. We need your help to protect global public health. We have a short peiod of time to tell our Senate representatives that this is unacceptable. Call now using PIH's call tool, email or join group advocacy session.
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