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Out of context: Reply #68186
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- kingsteven0
A good mate of mine has Hep C. from doing smack/ sharing needles in the 80's, now coming up to 50 has been clean for nearly 30 years. Was really optimistic a few years ago when he heard there's a cure but he moves around a lot and so far hasn't been able to secure the medication... Meanwhile, has seen a bunch of his mates die from liver cancer and fearful he's going to go the same way... I've talked to him a bunch of times about it but only just took the notion to start asking around this week about options for his treatment (i work in the medical faculty of a university) and it's so fucked up, i've more or less just been reading about it all week.
Just the idea of having disease that will kill you that can be cured (95% success) by taking one pill a day for 12 weeks and you can't get the meds!
The drug (Epclusa) will cost you £36,000 (UK). The company (Gilead) that makes it justifies the price in the US ($84,000 for the course) by comparing it to the cost of a liver transplant! The executives say shit like "well, people get a mortgage to make sure they have a roof over their head in the future" yet sell exactly the same drug to Egypt for 1% of the cost. If you're in Australia (or a country that legislates for generic drugs) it's £1500 for the whole course... Even if you live in Glasgow there's a far better chance of being prescribed it on the NHS - total lottery. Here, it's not epidemic so they won't prescribe it unless you're on monthly Hep C medicine and worsening.
Feel like we're making some movements towards getting him the generic version imported (paying £36,000 isn't an option) but needs to pay his way through a bunch of private consultations to determine if thats even an option - at this point we don't even know if we can find a consultant locally that isn't in Gilead's pocket.
FUCKED UP!
- The portuguese NHS managed to get the cure for free to the patients, with 9000 cured since 2015.dmay
- @dmay The same on the Basque NHS, I've got a friend now on treatmentOBBTKN
- Pharma research is a tricky one - it costs a fuckload and requires capital motivation to span years... But there has to be balance and a cut off.detritus
- I get that det but Gilead openly justifies the cost because it also makes the monthly treatment and will loose long-term profit if cured...kingsteven
- it's a combination treatment of existing products so not sure R/D costs would even be as much as a new drug + Gilead's profits are >3 x spend on R/D annually.kingsteven
- Hep C is America's plague. 3 mil affected, but you have to be very sick to get meds, first cure in decades, 90k for 90 pills for 90 days is the treatment!robotron3k
- Get over to China where they sell the base ingredients for these drugs for a fraction of the price https://www.facebook…whatthefunk
- ^ yeah, he's considering that as an option too... still hopeful we can sort it out here.kingsteven
- What about a gofundme type fundraiser. See these all the time. Or a local one for friends and families. Auction donated art etc...microkorg
- .. fund holiday of a lifetime over to Oz and get treatment private over there?microkorg
- ^ yeah, all options, he's raised some money already, just finding the most convenient way... ATM just appalled by the general monetisation of illness vs cure.kingsteven
- Sounds like a 12wk vacation to Egypt is in order.monNom
- As a Type 1 diabetic who has seen insulin prices go up at least 400% in the last decade FOR THE SAME INSULIN. Our pharma system is insane.mathinc
- ^^ @mathinc, have you heard about the BGC vaccine for Type 1?Gnash
- some are calling a potential cure for type 1Gnash
- https://medicalxpres…Gnash
- Oh fuck, did I post that earlier? haha, I wrote it then thought i was being a bit obvious and superfluous so decided against posting..detritus
- ..clearly I hit 'Save' instead of 'Cancel' or just scooting off elsewhere.detritus
- Those execs will be held accountable for crimes against humanity, one day, the scum...set
- I think governments should fund private/commercial therapy development, then use and distribute at cost, then once paid-off, open source.detritus
- The US/EU/Asianosphere have oodles of money they could support hardcore developments with. Set up a global pay back rate, then genericise.detritus
- Because sure as fuck, the capital incentive to counter our immediate antibiotic (for example) crisis doesn't exist in stock market terms.detritus
- Growth and profit expectations are the single-biggest cause of ALL of the world's problems. But, annoyingly, the source of much of our development.detritus
- 'Growth'. 'Development'.
These words are as disgusting as they are inspiring.detritus - The sooner some cunt develops LSD bombs, the better.detritus
- I have a step-uncle who has HepC from 80s excess. Moved to China to carve jade.
A fifty-something white man playing an old Chinese game. Lives as he wants.detritus - Biding time, whatever comes.detritus
- *looks at can of cider*
Less. Sharing.detritus - heh, interestingly enough there's been studies in to Hordenine (originally discovered as the antibiotic agent in peyote 'Peyocactin') can be used to combatkingsteven
- antibiotic resistant bacteria, so you could kill two birds with one stone there @detritus.kingsteven