Open letter to Gilead and Viatris: We need affordable treatments for the rise of serious invasive fungal diseases

MSF and others sent this open letter to the pharmaceutical companies Gilead Sciences and Viatris expressing grave concern regarding the lack of adequate supply and affordable access to liposomal amphotericin B (L-AmB) to treat mucormycosis (“black fungus”). This life-threatening fungal infection has compounded the crisis of COVID-19 in India and Nepal. The rapidly increasing need for L-AmB to treat mucormycosis as a devastating complication of COVID-19 comes against a larger backdrop of the persistent unaffordable pricing of this crucial antifungal drug, including in the private market; lack of access to the offered access price for cryptococcal meningitis; and difficulty accessing a predictable and affordable supply for the neglected tropical disease visceral leishmaniasis, as well as several other systemic fungal infections such as talaromycosis.