South African regulator decides Vertex provides sufficient access to CF drugs

After a lengthy investigation, South African regulators decided Vertex Pharmaceuticals has sufficiently provided access to its cystic fibrosis medications, ending a high-profile episode that placed the company on the defensive over the cost of its treatments. But the move angered patient activists who argued the arrangement is inequitable and that some patients “will continue to suffer and die.”

The high-profile case began early last year when a coalition of families and activists simultaneously petitioned four different governments – South Africa, India, Brazil and Ukraine – to make it possible to obtain lower-cost, generic versions of Trikafta, a particularly effective triple-combination treatment for the disease, which causes the body to produce thick, sticky mucus that damages the lungs and other organs.

The coordinated effort was only the latest attempt by cystic fibrosis patients and their supporters to draw attention to what had become an expanding campaign to widen access to Vertex medicines. In recent years, patients and their families helped to spark skirmishes between the company and numerous cash-strapped governments. A particularly vitriolic battle occurred in the U.K.