Help us stop profiteering on medical tests

The medical test maker Cepheid, which is owned by US corporation Danaher, vastly overcharges low- and middle-income countries for the GeneXpert tests used to diagnose diseases such as tuberculosis (TB), HIV, hepatitis, Ebola, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). A study by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) shows that Cepheid and Danaher could be charging $5 for each of these medical tests and still make a profit, but instead, they charge up to triple and quadruple that price, even in the world’s poorest countries.

Last September, after a lot of pressure from around 150 organisations and thousands of activists online, Cepheid and Danaher reduced the price of the primary TB test by 20 per cent. This has already helped save millions of dollars for governments and global health institutions and will allow millions of additional tests to be purchased each year—but it is not enough.

Now is the time for Cepheid and Danaher to drop the price of GeneXpert tests to $5 each for all diseases and save many more lives in low- and middle-income countries.

These corporations continue to charge low- and middle-income countries between $15 and $20 for the same type of test that can help diagnose multiple other diseases, including drug-resistant TB, HIV, and hepatitis. These prices are 200 per cent to 400 per cent higher than what it costs Cepheid and Danaher to make one test. Plus, they keep prices exorbitantly high for low- and middle-income countries, even though they are selling millions more tests year on year, which has brought costs down for them through economies of scale. And on top of that, they got more than $252 million in public funding—primarily from the US government—to help develop the test in the first place.

The high price of GeneXpert tests is the main barrier for countries and health care providers to expand medical testing and save more lives by getting people the treatment they need faster. The statistics are staggering: 60 per cent of people with TB can’t access a World Health Organization (WHO)-recommended TB test like GeneXpert, and half of infants exposed to HIV are not tested for HIV within the first 2 months of life, as recommended by WHO.

Help us get Cepheid and Danaher to prioritise people’s lives over their exorbitant profits.

In 2023 alone, Danaher made almost $24 billion in revenue, and CEO Rainer Blair attributed their “better-than-expected" revenue directly to Cepheid’s sales. More affordable GeneXpert tests will help reduce needless suffering and unnecessary loss of life. 

Why wait any longer to lower the price?