First Patients Worldwide Access Affordable Generic Cystic Fibrosis Treatment Triko, Priced 96% Below Vertex's Trikafta
核心洞察
Beximco Pharmaceuticals (搜索) has launched Triko (搜索), a generic version of Trikafta (elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor), priced at $12,750 per year for adults and $6,375 for children — a 96% reduction from the US list price of $370,000.
The first patients from six countries — Slovakia, South Africa, Qatar, the US, the UK, and Bangladesh — received their medicines at a handover ceremony in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
The initiative, supported by the global Right to Breathe campaign, leverages WTO TRIPS provisions allowing Least Developed Countries to manufacture and export generic versions of patented medicines.
DHAKA, Bangladesh — In a landmark moment for global health equity, the first patients from six countries have received an affordable generic version of the lifesaving cystic fibrosis (搜索) (CF) treatment Trikafta, manufactured by Bangladesh-based Beximco Pharmaceuticals (搜索). The handover ceremony, held at the company's manufacturing facility in Dhaka on June 15, 2026, marks the culmination of a years-long campaign to break the monopoly pricing that has kept the breakthrough therapy out of reach for tens of thousands of patients worldwide.
The generic combination therapy, branded Triko (搜索), contains the same three active ingredients — elexacaftor, tezacaftor, and ivacaftor (ETI) — as Vertex Pharmaceuticals' Trikafta (also known as Kaftrio in some markets). Priced at $12,750 per year for adults and $6,375 per year for children, Triko represents a 96% reduction from the US list price of approximately $370,000 per patient per year charged by Vertex.
Patients Travel from Around the World
Patients and their families traveled from Slovakia, South Africa, Qatar, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Bangladesh to collect the first doses of Triko (搜索). Among them was Šimon Ševčík, who traveled with his father from Slovakia. "I felt the effect within an hour — I started coughing and I knew it was working. My lungs were clearing," said Ševčík. "This is an amazing moment for me — I feel like my future has opened up. I hope every CF patient gets to experience this very, very soon."
While some patients in Slovakia have access to Vertex's Kaftrio through national reimbursement agreements, individuals with less common CF mutations, like Šimon, remain excluded from coverage.
Josua Lottering, an 18-year-old from South Africa, attended with his mother Wilna. "My own mother died of CF when I was a child. Despite this, my son Josua was only diagnosed last year," Wilna Lottering said. "But this treatment is going to transform both our lives. No more fear. We can't express how grateful we are. I see a light in Josua's eyes that I haven't seen for a very long time."
Six-year-old Aadil from Bangladesh also secured access to Triko (搜索). His father, Mustafizur, described the desperation of watching his son deteriorate: "Accessing Vertex's drugs was impossible for me — I was forced to watch my son get sicker as they got rich. We felt helpless and desperate. But today marks a new beginning for us."
The Legal and Economic Framework
Beximco Pharma is headquartered in Bangladesh, a country classified as a Least Developed Country (LDC) by the United Nations. Under the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), LDC member states are exempt from enforcing pharmaceutical patents, providing a legal basis for the company to manufacture and export generic versions of patented medicines.
At the Triko (搜索) price point, 58 children can receive treatment for the same cost as treating one child with the branded medicine. Furthermore, with a dose reduction protocol pioneered by South African CF clinicians, the cost to treat a child for a year drops to less than $2,000.
Beximco has also separately launched Bexdeco (搜索), a generic version of ivacaftor (one of the three active components of Trikafta), available at $5 per tablet for patients who require this component as a standalone therapy.
The Global CF Burden
Cystic fibrosis (搜索) is a rare but life-threatening genetic disorder characterized by the build-up of thick mucus in the lungs and digestive system, severely impairing respiratory function. Until recently, the disease was associated with death in early adulthood. Today, approximately 160,000 people worldwide are living with CF, with an estimated 80,000 further cases thought to be undiagnosed — 82% of whom are in low- and middle-income countries.
Trikafta has transformed treatment outcomes and significantly improved survival rates for CF patients. However, Vertex's patent monopoly and pricing strategy have placed the medicine beyond the reach of the vast majority of patients globally.
A Grassroots Campaign Bears Fruit
The development of an affordable generic was publicly announced at the North American Cystic Fibrosis (搜索) Conference (NACFC) in Seattle, Washington, on October 23, 2025, by a coalition of parents of children living with CF. The initiative has been driven by the global Right to Breathe campaign, a grassroots movement of CF patients, parents, clinicians, and access-to-medicines activists.
Gayle Pledger, Campaign Lead for Right to Breathe and a CF parent and patient advocate from the United Kingdom, stated: "I saw my daughter suffering from CF for years. I could not leave mums in the same position around the world to suffer that fate alone when a drug that could save their child's life exists. We have been fighting to overcome the greed of Vertex to secure sustainable access to CF modulators for years. Today, as the first patients are already starting to feel the beneficial effects of a genuinely affordable generic version, we know that Vertex can no longer hold CF patient's lives to ransom to boost their profits and enrich their executives."
Rabbur Reza, Chief Operating Officer of Beximco Pharma, said: "At Beximco Pharma, we have always sought to address the unmet medical needs of patients, particularly in therapy areas characterised by severely limited access. We are deeply proud to be part of this meaningful initiative. We believe that access to this life-saving treatment will have a truly transformative impact on the thousands of patients living with CF who are currently deprived of treatment due to the significant cost burden."
Next Steps for Global Access
For the initial period following launch, supply will be managed on a named-patient basis through the CF Buyers' Club, with plans to progressively expand access to the broader global CF community as manufacturing capacity is scaled. Beximco Pharma's manufacturing facilities are certified by regulatory authorities from the USA, Europe, Australia, Canada, GCC, and Latin America, and the company has a geographic footprint spanning more than 50 countries.