Glivec--a wonder drug only for the rich
Leukemia patients suffer from what was recently an incurable disease. Very few have been able to prolong their life beyond the threshold of death, but now there is a new medicine called "Glivac."
Source : Jinbo in Progress #2 [Jinbonet Newsletter]
Leukemia patients suffer from what was recently an incurable disease. Very few have been able to prolong their life beyond the threshold of death, but now there is a new medicine called "Glivac." However, only a chosen few can purchase the new drug because it is extremely expensive.
Those poor families who cannot afford Glivac are forced to watch their sons and daughters suffer daily and eventually die. An article from the South Korean online journal Oh My News and entitled "A painful report of leukemia patients" asked that the dispute between the South Korean government and Novartis, the maker of Glivac, over the cost of the medicine should be settled without delay. Furthermore, the article argued for a quick change to the vague application range of medical insurance in order to better treat long-suffering leukmeia patients.
A petition on the Glivac issue was presented to the National Committee for Human Rights by Kang Ju-sung, representative of The Committee For Chronic Leukemia Patients and Hong Kwan-seo and Bong Ju-kang, reprentatives of The Joint Committee For Solving the Glivac Problem and Improving Public Health Care on March 18. It stated that the price of Glivac is fixed higher than it should be and that expenses accorded to patients are too high.
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