Oil at $120 would add 15% to one HIV drug's cost to make

A Unitaid report finds petrochemical inputs drive 85% of the manufacturing cost rise essential medicines face when crude climbs.

STAT interviewed Julien Pouille, who leads Unitaid's climate and health strategic team and wrote a new report on how oil prices reach into medicine prices. For one HIV medicine the report examined, manufacturing cost could rise about 15% if oil reaches $120 a barrel, with roughly 85% of that increase traced to petrochemical ingredients. Pouille's argument is that cutting petrochemical reliance in drug manufacturing would hold costs down as well as serve climate goals.

Generic essential medicines are priced close to their input costs, so a crude shock passes almost straight through to the people least able to absorb it — a quiet channel by which an energy crisis becomes a health one. Most of the interview sits behind STAT's subscriber paywall; the detail is with them.

Source: STAT