This is the best summary I could come up with:

In February, legal papers were filed with the South African High Court, seeking a compulsory licence that would allow the supply of more affordable generic versions of the CF drug.

Research led by Dr Andrew Hill, of the University of Liverpool pharmacology department, found the basic production cost for these drugs was less than $6,000 (£4,790) a year per patient.

The government began discussing invoking what is known as a Crown use licence, which would have swept aside the company’s exclusivity rights to these drugs and allowed the UK to buy in generic, vastly cheaper versions of the treatment.

But some patients, desperate for access to these drugs in the meantime, took matters into their own hands and created a buyers club, flying to Argentina to buy a generic version produced by a company there.

And these results were published before the announcement the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency had extended the licences of Kaftrio and Kalydeco to two- to five-year-olds, which will increase the amounts needed for NHS patients.

The second NICE committee meeting to discuss the comments submitted during the consultation period is on Thursday, with a final recommendation regarding NHS funding for these treatments expected next spring.

The original article contains 1,192 words, the summary contains 202 words. Saved 83%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

Just some basics about the company.

Revenue Income US$8.93 billion (2022)

Operating income US$4.31 billion (2022)

Net income US$3.32 billion (2022)

The bulk of the difference between operating income and net income in a research driven company is the R&D. They are running at 11% just under $1 billion per year. A publically traded company can’t really hide their research costs, only obscure it for the uniformed.

Their net income is 37% of revenue. So they are paying for over 4 years of research for every year (3 past years plus current gear). So their argument they need the high prices to cover past research costs is pure bullshit. I’d give them the current year and one past year. But 4 years?

This is pure price gouging for profit over people’s lives. Invalidating their patent is fully justified.

Capitalism and healthcare are fundamentally incompatible and can never work.