Orkambi will finally be available on the NHS - now the system needs reform.

On the 24th October 2019 we heard the wonderful news that the cystic fibrosis drug Orkambi will finally be made available to patients on the NHS.

This long-awaited news was tempered by the fact that for four years, while drug company Vertex had refused to drop the price for Orkambi to a level the NHS could afford, hundreds of patients died without access. Vertex initially demanded £104,000 per patient per year for the drug - an astronomical amount of money which was way above what the NHS could afford to pay.

Despite Vertex’s boss complaining that the company had a “nice problem of accumulating cash very rapidly”, the company refused to drop the price until a Just Treatment campaign led by parents and patients forced them to do so.

Watch our video to find out how we won - and why we won’t rest until we have a system that delivers for all patients.