Dear employees of Danaher and its affiliate companies*,
We have a big problem, and we need your help.
Danaher, the corporation that you work for every day, owns Cepheid, a company that makes diagnostic tests that save peoples’ lives. We, at MSF, get to see the lifesaving impact of Cepheid’s GeneXpert tests to diagnose tuberculosis, HIV, hepatitis, and many other diseases, every single day. These medical tests—your company’s tests—have given the people in our care the most precious thing: the privilege of walking back into their lives—into their futures.
And yet, we also know that there are millions more people around the world who cannot afford these tests, who go undiagnosed and miss out on treatment. The problem is that your company is charging exorbitantly high prices for these tests—making them unaffordable for the people who need them most. These high prices deny people a second chance—to get tested, to get treatment, and to be cured.
We know it’s not a comfortable thought; we have all experienced anxiety around the health of people we love and that is why we implore you to recognize that you are in a unique position to compel your leadership to make this crucial change. We need these tests to be affordably priced at $5 per test—not $8, or $10, or $15, or even $20, which is what you are charging in the world’s poorest countries today.
We are all grateful for the technological advances that can improve health outcomes, but those advances mean nothing if the people who need them most can’t afford them. We are certain that your leaders are currently disconnected from the aspirations and values of many of the people who work for Danaher—they are primarily driven by profits, not the human beings they are meant to serve. You can change this and make a difference.
As employees under the Danaher umbrella, your company not only relies on your talents, but it also respects what you have to say. Your leadership will listen to you in a way that they won’t listen to other people. Now is the moment to use your influence and your agency by asking your leaders to choose a better path. Ask them to think carefully about you, the people they employ, and who they care for professionally. You are mothers, fathers, children, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. Think of all the other mothers, fathers, children, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, and grandparents in different places, who just want a chance to live a healthy, fulfilling life with their loved ones.
Help us stop the profiteering on medical tests
Sign the petition to demand drug manufacturers Cepheid and Danaher drop the price of GeneXpert tests for low- and middle-income countries.
Together with 150 organizations and health activists around the world, we have launched the ‘Time for $5 campaign’ to call on Danaher to drop the price of all GeneXpert tests to $5 a test. We ask you to join us by:
- Signing our petition for more affordable tests for low- and middle-income countries
- Telling Danaher and Cepheid leadership how they can be more responsible in their business practices. Your inputs on the Feedback Box hosted by TBFighters.org will be recorded anonymously.
On behalf of the people we can provide care to, and the many people elsewhere who remain undiagnosed and not treated, we thank you for bravely speaking out about this important cause and pushing your leaders to do better. Together, we can create a world where patients’ needs are prioritized over corporate profiteering.
Sincerely,
Your friends at MSF
*Danaher’s affiliate companies are currently Abcam, Aldevron, Beckman Coulter, Beckman Coulter Life Sciences, Cepheid, Cytiva, HemoCue, IDBS, Integrated DNA Technologies, Leica Biosystems, Leica Microsystems, Mammotome, Molecular Devices, Pall, Phenomenex, Radiometer, and SCIEX.
