India warns Egypt companies against selling Sovaldi medicines

India today warned some companies in Egypt against selling Sovaldi medicines, used to treat hepatitis C, which they claim are being manufactured in India.
"It has come to our attention that certain unscrupulous elements are engaged in selling Sovaldi medicines in Egypt as genuine companies. These companies are claiming that their Sovaldi products are being produced in India," said an Indian Embassy statement.
The statement said that only seven Indian companies namely Cipla, Cadila, Hetero, Ranbaxy, Mylan Laboratories, Strides Arcolab, Sequent Scientific are licensed by US-based biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences to manufacture Sovaldi medicines.
It may also to be mentioned that their production of Sovaldi medicines is still in the R&D stages and have not gone into production yet, the statement said.

The embassy, then, warned that any company other than the seven mentioned-above, claiming to sell Sovaldi products are engaging themselves in illegal and criminal act and will be liable to face legal action.
Egypt has the highest prevalence of the Hepatitis C virus (HCV) in the world, with 14 per cent of the population infected and 11.8 million patients, according to the World Health Organisation.

Every year there are 1,70,000-2,00,000 new HVC cases in Egypt.
In July, the Ministry of Health signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Gilead Sciences to supply the company's hepatitis C pill Sovaldi at 1 per cent of its original price.

Egyptian Minister of Health Adel Al-Adawy said that the cost of a 3-month treatment of Sovaldi abroad is USD 84,000, while in Egypt it does not exceed 1 per cent.