The World Health Organization is scrambling to make new hepatitis C drugs more affordable to patients who suffer from the disease. The WHO is striving for a “concerted effort” to make the drug more affordable and accessible to people around the world.

The new hepatitis C drugs provide a chance to cure the liver-destroying virus, but are too expensive for many sufferers. Recent comments from the agency aim to push drugmakers, including Gilead Sciences, which is already upsetting customers in the U.S. with pills that cost $1,000 per day, to work on ways to improve access to the life-saving drug.

In newly released treatment guidelines for the disease, the first of their kind, which were produced at a meeting in London with liver experts, the WHO recommended the drugs from companies including Gilead Sciences and Johnson & Johnson, with an emphasis on the cost.

There are roughly 150 million people throughout the world with chronic hepatitis C infections, making the push for more affordable medication a big part of the battle.

Modern drugs are greatly enhancing the fight against hepatitis C, as pills including Gilead’s Sovaldi are more effective and can be tolerated better than older injection regimens. Cure rates are generally above 90 percent in several cases.

Professor of medicine in Vienna, and secretary-general of the European Association for the Study of Liver, Markus Peck-Radosavljevic, explained to Reuters that, “These drugs are fantastic – they are a real breakthrough.” However, he adds, “…the prices are too high.”

Pharmaceutical companies justify the high cost of the medications by noting that they must charge higher prices on new and successful drugs to aid with the big cost of development, including drugs that never make it to the market.

Hepatitis C is frequently spread through the blood by contaminated needles, causing liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. Many of the cases are in poorer countries where the complexity of the disease, along with cost and side effects related to current treatments make treatment impractical.