To that point, there's no way this drug is going to cost $40,000 in Uganda, because the Ugandan market will not bear that price.
Usually the way it works is there is some wildly high sticker price for individual Americans, which is what that $40K probably is here, and almost everyone pays less than that. E.g. American insurance companies pay something that's still very high but lower than that. Europeans pay something lower than the American insurance companies. And lower income countries get the cheapest price of all.
The article does refer to this btw, Gilead is already talking about some voluntary licensing program that'll be available so somebody can manufacture cheap generics in countries like Uganda. This is quite common with this sort of drug but people generally don't read past the headline.
What's going on is simply that the pharmas have American regulators in their pockets so they can charge anything they want in the US.
Usually the way it works is there is some wildly high sticker price for individual Americans, which is what that $40K probably is here, and almost everyone pays less than that. E.g. American insurance companies pay something that's still very high but lower than that. Europeans pay something lower than the American insurance companies. And lower income countries get the cheapest price of all.
The article does refer to this btw, Gilead is already talking about some voluntary licensing program that'll be available so somebody can manufacture cheap generics in countries like Uganda. This is quite common with this sort of drug but people generally don't read past the headline.
What's going on is simply that the pharmas have American regulators in their pockets so they can charge anything they want in the US.