Nearly 8,000 packs of Orkambi, the breakthrough medicine for cystic fibrosis, have been destroyed by the manufacturer while it has been in a stand-off with the NHS over the high price it wants to charge for the drug.
The US company Vertex has distributed 80,000 packs of Orkambi around Europe from its base in the UK since the drug was licensed in 2015. Other European countries with smaller numbers of people affected by the genetic disease have agreed to a high price, sometimes in order to give access to patients before negotiating downwards.
Full Story: The Guardian, 27th March 2019