TOPIC:

Know anyone with #hepatitis c? Feature on #Newsnight tonight from me & @Studio9films about pricing of and access to new treatments.

A couple of online activist, film-making & medic friends involved, Fingers crossed it will go ahead & won't be pulled for bigger news, it's quite an achievement.

BBC 2 Tonight - 10.30 pm

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mk25

ps Trying to share this in the hope that someone untreated will go for it, our way, please share if you know anyone waiting for meds and considering generics

Outside the UK you can watch it here:

íHmmm it seems like Newsnight may be possibly shortening the feature a little and added an 'alternative' view as the final say at a late hour, I wonder who that could possibly be ?



Meanwhile, a reminder of todays Times article :
www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/health/news/article4692556.ece

I am keen to see this but the BBC blocks access to iplayer video outside the UK (I'm in NZ) and somehow blocks even proxies/VPNs from working properly. Has anyone found a way? The url is www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mk25
Or maybe someone could record it and make it available here??

It was a brilliant report. Really excellent. Newsnight brought on a woman at the end from the pharmacutical world and she sounded pretty weak and incredibly corporate in comparisson. Dr Freeman got a mention and plenty of time given to all we value - A fantastic job by Kate Brown. I hope it helps some of those 'sitting on the fence' to decide rather than risk their health further.

Em, BBC does not block UK VPNS I've used them for years am not sure why you're being
blocked!

So the time has come. FixhepC on the Beeb. Can't get any more mainstream than that. Anybody who doesn't know about it now must be wearing an eyemask and ear muffs. Cheaper drugs in India were also mentioned, actually whispered about quickly in passing.

That bitch at the end, Virginia Acha of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry actually had the gall to say that if she had hepC she would get her drugs via the proper NHS sources only, because she "knows what can happen" via less legitimate sources. Which proved to me right there that she had no clue what she was talking about. I'd like to see her with her liver rotting away waiting for the NHS to come across with the meds, swooning at talk of the buyers club. Oh yeah? I think not.

Well, that was a big day, that was.
dt

............Or maybe the lovely Virginia was just smiling for the cameras and lying through her teeth. (Sigh)
You couldn't be in the pharmaceutical industry and be that clueless, could you.
dt

Cheaper drugs in India were also mentioned, actually whispered about quickly in passing.

Really? Patient was clutching his bottles throught his interview and mentioned 'talking to a physician in Australia who tested the meds saying they could be accessed much more cheaply' ? Don't think they'd actually be allowed to blatantly advertise a such? Clever move having the patient talking to his own Dr and hearing he was SVR 12 (edit sorry UND at EOT thx dt) was an excellent call. Also thought Dr Andrew Hill excellent with his nice calm Dr demeanour stating that we won't be able to rid the world of HCC at this cost.
Agree with you re Virginia Archer, a non biased person watched it with me and said she came across as totally weak after the previous feature. Pity they put her on at the end though.

It's the best report we've had yet

Good to see Dr James Freeman and the Fix Hep C Buyers Club get a mention on the BBC. It could well encourage more hepatitis c sufferers in the UK to access generics from abroad. Interesting that Gilead bottled out of the chance to put a representative on the programme to defend their pricing policy.

Dr Andrew Hill from Liverpool University put the question effectively: why is a course of medicine that is, to use his words, “fundamentally cheap”, costing £100 to produce, being sold to the very hard-pressed UK National Health Service at a list price of £35,000.

Virginia Acha, the representative from the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry failed, IMHO, to convincingly answer either of the two most pertinent questions put to her by the programme presenter, namely: wouldn't it help prevent this kind of high pricing if the length of time of the monopoly granted by a pharmaceutical patent was reduced; and, secondly, if she had hepatitis c, and couldn't access treatment on the NHS because of its high price, wouldn't she join a buyers' club to access patent-free drugs from abroad?

A great report, I managed to watch it using Hola VPN.

LG - I meant the woman who was on before that patient with the bottles, just mentioning India.
Also, I don't think that was an SVR12 report I think it was an EOT report, but who's quibbling it was a good call.

Dr Andrew Hill from Liverpool University put the question effectively: why is a course of medicine that is, to use his words, “fundamentally cheap”, costing £100 to produce, being sold to the very hard-pressed UK National Health Service at a list price of £35,000.

Yep. I thought all angles were covered. How HepC affects the patients., how some are accessing and the possibilities for those that haven't yet. A Drs incredulous view of the price charged to a struggling NHS and pharmacuticals response (the weakest link I feel).

The presenter actually laughed at Virginia Acha denying she would access medicines abroad if she was in the same boat and she came across as if she was in a team leader corporate meeting orvsomething and totally lacking empathy.

I wanted to hug the three patients

Great job Kate Brown.

For those who haven't seen the report yet:

Man that was awesome!

Dr Andrew Hill and the patients stole the show.