On Friday, April 3, Treatment Action Group (TAG) and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), and the Global Coalition of TB Activists (GCTA) held a webinar on the price of Xpert tests for COVID-19, TB, HIV, HCV and other diseases. The webinar provided the latest information about the “Time for $5” campaign and the evidence base for why GeneXpert tests should be priced at $5.

The “Time for $5” campaign is a global civil society movement calling on the diagnostics company Cepheid to reduce the prices of Xpert rapid molecular tests for eligible developing countries from $10-$20 to $5, inclusive of the cost of service and maintenance. These include tests for TB, HIV, hepatitis B & C, HPV, STIs, and now COVID-19. This $5 ask is underpinned by a cost-of-goods analysis that found the cost of manufacturing each test to be approximately $3.

More information on the “Time for $5” campaign is available here, including all of the campaign correspondence with Cepheid to date.

Presentations:

• “Time for $5” campaign – David Branigan, TB Project Officer, Treatment Action Group
• People-centered, rights-based pricing for Xpert tests for TB, COVID-19 and other diseases – Blessina Kumar, CEO, Global Coalition of TB Activists
• Cepheid’s GeneXpert cartridges: a cost-of-goods analysis – Stijn Deborggraeve, Diagnostics Advisor Infectious Diseases, MSF Access Campaign
• Overall demands of diagnostics companies, not limited to Cepheid – Sharonann Lynch, HIV & TB Policy Advisor, MSF Access Campaign