Hepatitis C sufferer imports life-saving drugs from India, takes on global pharmaceutical company

[Black Alloy]

"It is straight from the script of Hollywood movie Dallas Buyers Club — an Australian hepatitis C sufferer has taken on a global pharmaceutical company, accusing them of failing to provide a life-saving medication at an affordable cost.

"The only difference between me and the guy in Dallas Buyers Club is I'm not running it as a business and I'm not making any money out of it, as much as I like to see him with his big wads of dollar bills," Greg Jefferys told 7.30.

Mr Jefferys was so sick from hepatitis C last year that he was unable to get out of bed some days.

He dropped out of his university PhD studies and quit many of his hobbies, including kayaking and fishing.

He desperately needed a drug call Sovaldi, manufactured by US pharmaceutical giant Gilead, but could not afford it without selling his house.

"You need a minimum of 84 [tablets] so its $100,000 for a treatment," Mr Jefferys said.

"If you haven't got the money, for a lot of people it's a death sentence — you die.

"I was right on the edge of cirrhosis of the liver, once you get cirrhosis of the liver you then open up to tumours and cancer."

The desperation to find a cheaper source of medication before it was too late lead Mr Jefferys to the Indian city of Chennai."

Hepatitis C sufferer imports life-saving drugs from India, takes on global pharmaceutical company - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Have to say well done to the Indian Government for not allowing their big pharma companies to kill people.

 

[ghameed]

I know India will recieve a lot of flak from the first world about India's patent laws,but one has to look at the broader picture to understand India's place in the bio pharma industry. India is literally the savior for all developing countries as far as affordable drugs are concerned . Any regulation favoring big pharma will practically wipe out all hope from billions of people across the world who continue to depend on India for affordable drugs for ailments literally ranging from A to Z

 

[Rau]

"You need a minimum of 84 [tablets] so its $100,000 for a treatment," Mr Jefferys said.

WTF.... my sister got hepatitis (not sure its A,B,C...) forget about $ it dosnt cost even ₹ 100,000 .

 

[Black Alloy]

WTF.... my sister got hepatitis (not sure its A,B,C...) forget about $ it dosnt cost even ₹ 100,000 .

But in Australia, USA etc it cost a ton of money and these people can't afford it the big pharma company's are killing people and it's about time governments make a stand against this, and India has and that's a good thing. Did you read the article?

 

[Kyusuibu Honbu]

Good thing in 1970s India took on patent trolling of these big pharmas, hope more Govts follow

 

[Rau]

Did you read the article?

Yes..

 

[Black Alloy]

Yes..

Even medical care in the USA etc is a shocker.

 

[Bang Galore]

WTF.... my sister got hepatitis (not sure its A,B,C...) forget about $ it dosnt cost even ₹ 100,000 .

There's a lot of difference between A,B & C. Maybe you should hold of on commenting till you know what you are speaking of. In India, Sovaldi costs about $900 while it costs about $88,000 in Europe, North America & Australia. It is the same drug (no patents are being broken in India) of Gilead Sciences, just different pricing strategies in the hope of preventing Indian authorities from issuing orders for compulsory licensing.

 

[Rau]

Even medical care in the USA etc is a shocker.

$10 Copy of Gilead Blockbuster Sovaldi Appears in Bangladesh
from link
"Incepta’s price of about $900 for 12 weeks is the same price at which Gilead will offer its branded version of the drug in India"

 

[Black Alloy]

$10 Copy of Gilead Blockbuster Sovaldi Appears in Bangladesh
from link
"Incepta’s price of about $900 for 12 weeks is the same price at which Gilead will offer its branded version of the drug in India"

I am just reporting what was in the article, and if that's the case then big pharma is backing down.

 

[Rau]

There's a lot of difference between A,B & C. Maybe you should hold of on commenting till you know what you are speaking of. In India, Sovaldi costs about $900 while it costs about $88,000 in Europe, North America & Australia. It is the same drug (no patents are being broken in India) of Gilead Sciences, just different pricing strategies in the hope of preventing Indian authorities from issuing orders for compulsory licensing.

I am not from medical field and dont have any idea about it,this thing i already put in my post. i am commented, because one thing i am sure that any type of Hepatitis doesn't cost that much in India.

I am just reporting what was in the article, and if that's the case then big pharma is backing down.

Thats the whole point , if they afford same drug in India at $900 , then why not in USA and Australia.

 

[Black Alloy]

I am not from medical field and dont have any idea about it,this thing i already put in my post. i am commented, because one thing i am sure that any type of Hepatitis doesn't cost that much in India.


Thats the whole point , if they afford same drug in India at $900 , then why not in USA and Australia.

It's not $900 it's $100,000.

 

[unbiasedopinion]

This is an open murder by these pharmaceutical companies. Life saving drugs etc should be made available at very low cost.

 

[Stephen Cohen]

Will India Be The Downfall Of The US Biopharma Industry

Americans want to pop made in India Sovaldi drug for 1 per cent of the cost - The Economic Times

 

[Chanakya's_Chant]

"It is straight from the script of Hollywood movie Dallas Buyers Club — an Australian hepatitis C sufferer has taken on a global pharmaceutical company, accusing them of failing to provide a life-saving medication at an affordable cost.

"The only difference between me and the guy in Dallas Buyers Club is I'm not running it as a business and I'm not making any money out of it, as much as I like to see him with his big wads of dollar bills," Greg Jefferys told 7.30.

Mr Jefferys was so sick from hepatitis C last year that he was unable to get out of bed some days.

He dropped out of his university PhD studies and quit many of his hobbies, including kayaking and fishing.

He desperately needed a drug call Sovaldi, manufactured by US pharmaceutical giant Gilead, but could not afford it without selling his house.

"You need a minimum of 84 [tablets] so its $100,000 for a treatment," Mr Jefferys said.

"If you haven't got the money, for a lot of people it's a death sentence — you die.

"I was right on the edge of cirrhosis of the liver, once you get cirrhosis of the liver you then open up to tumours and cancer."

The desperation to find a cheaper source of medication before it was too late lead Mr Jefferys to the Indian city of Chennai."

Hepatitis C sufferer imports life-saving drugs from India, takes on global pharmaceutical company - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Have to say well done to the Indian Government for not allowing their big pharma companies to kill people.

More than 80% of pharmaceutical, pharmachemical, and biotechnological patent applications recorded between 1995–2006 were in just six countries (US, Japan, Germany, France, UK and Switzerland) - You don't base your investment in R&D on one country's market, you base it on the whole global market - In the EU or America or Japan … the law is not going to change. They are safe in these countries, that's where their profits come from, and that profit is protected. If they didn't have protection in those six countries, that's when they would have a point to make. The inability to find new blockbusters has nothing to do with the sales of a couple of drugs in the Indian market.

Patents are designed to reward a person’s or a company’s invention by preventing others from copying and selling a product. That gives the patent holder a monopoly on supply. And pharmaceutical companies work hard to gain and extend such protections.

India’s law sets a higher bar for protection than in some other countries, limiting the ability of companies to get patents for new versions of drugs whose active ingredients were previously known unless they can show significant therapeutic benefit. U.S. and European patent laws more readily grant patents to updated versions regardless of whether they offer major improvements in efficacy over the original compounds.

A frequent complaint was that the US Pharma Industry in 1990's was that the country’s patent office granted monopoly protection too easily for innovations that didn’t represent major advances over existing medicines or known science, a practice known as “evergreening.”

Longer-acting versions of old medicines were given patents, allowing their manufacturers to market them as better than the older versions, whose patents had expired—and whose prices were cheap. The collective effect of a low bar for patents drives up healthcare costs and insurance premiums for patients which is not acceptable in India.

When you weigh the need to stimulate innovation by rewarding it against the imperative of making life-saving inventions accessible to people, India’s approach surely makes sense.

New products aren’t developed in a vacuum, after all. They rely on generations of discoveries to which a whole population - indeed a whole world, is the legitimate heir.

85% of the World's HIV/AIDS Antiretroviral Drugs Made in India