Mr. Robbie Lawlor:

Yes, almost all the funding for the hepatitis C cure, sofosbuvir, came from the National Institutes of Health and the US Department of Veterans Affairs. In effect, therefore, it came from taxpayers' money and public funding. A pharmaceutical company, Gilead, bought the company that made the drug, Pharmasset, as well as its patent. Gilead then set the price too high for many people to pay. Globally, 71 million people live with hepatitis C and from research, we know that with €40 billion in funding we would be able to eradicate hepatitis C from the world-----