Hepatitis C patients protest in Madrid demanding access to medicine
Daniela Sepulveda
Press TV, Madrid
Nayara is only 21 years old and has already reached the final stage of Hepatits C, a burden she has had to endure since the day she was born.
She was infected with Hepatitis C by her mother from birth. A disease that kills 12 people a day in Spain alone, according to the platform of those affected.
Dozens of those affected by the disease have gathered with their friends and families outside Gilead's Spanish headquarters to protest. The US pharmaceutical company produces Sovaldi, the medicine that can save the 200,000 people, who like Nayara, are infected by Hepatitis C in Spain.
Gilead has accrued 10 billion dollars from Sovaldi in 2014 alone. Thanks to the medicine the US multinational's profits quadrupled from the previous year.
They've been fighting for access to Sovaldi for over 5 months, with very little success, if any. The health ministry has promised to treat 5000 patients, in other words, only 2% of those diagnosed.
Frustrated by the government's lack of response, they have taken the case to Brussels. In an initiative organized by Podemos, Spain's emerging political party, the platform has presented a petition to the European Parliament demanding they declare an emergency health plan. So far, the EP has not offered a solution.
Gilead's employees refuse to speak to those affected, leaving protestors more frustrated than ever. Hepatitis C patients will try their luck again on March 1st. This time patients will come from all over spain to march to the congress of deputies as their time is running out.
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