Gilead Sciences, a pharmaceutical giant, has launched very effective yet pricey drug for the Hepatitis C patients. The company justifies the $94,500 price of Harvoni and $84,000 for Sovaldi for a 12 week course on the basis of its success rate at curing the disease and preventing future costs of hospitalization, liver cancer and transplants.
Discovery of Sofosbuvir – One of the most effective Hepatitis C treatment molecules
The drug can save the patient from spending a fortune on a new liver if everything else fails. Gilead Sciences put billions of dollars in research and development; the result was the discovery of sofosbuvir – an active drug molecule that treats Hepatitis C. 400 mg of Sofosbuvir is present in Sovaldi costing around $1000 a pill while Harvoni is comprised both of sofosbuvir and ledispasvir. The price of a single Harvoni pill is $1,125.
Gilead gives licences production of Sovaldi and Harvoni in India, driving down the costs
The cost of treating Hepatitis C is very high in the U.S. and the insurers, employers and U.S. Health programs have raised an outcry against the hefty price of Harvoni. However, Gilead Sciences gave license to produce generic versions of Harvoni to several Indian generic pharmaceutical companies. Since majority of Indian population earns much less than the US population, India has been treated as a special case and the Indian government has negotiated a deal with Gilead to produce Sovaldi at $300 per bottle and $900 for 12 weeks course, costing just 1% of what the treatment cost in U.S. In part this happened because India failed to recognize the innovation by Gilead that went into discovering the miracle Hepatitis C treatment.
Here is how much Harvoni costs around the world.
Buying Harvoni and Sovaldi in India
There are several generic versions of Harvoni available by licensed Indian pharmaceutical companies at reduced prices, which include drugs like MyHep, Ledifos, Hepcinat, Twinvir, Hepcinat LP and Hepcvir. Thus, there has been a rise in Hepatitis C Tourism as more and more patients are flying towards India to get cheaper treatment for their disease. The patients without sufficient insurance to cover the costs of Harvoni are already on the move; there is no Medicaid or state-funded program available for them in the U.S. so they are jetting to India for treatment.
One of the patients landed in Chennai and apart from his $2000 travelling and hotel expense, he paid $1000 for the treatment and saved US$80,000.
Ordering Harvoni Online
However, the patient of Hepatitis C does not necessarily have to travel all the way to India to get the medicines which they can conveniently order online. Although, in most cases, buying medicines online is mostly discouraged, but there are some reputable and credible suppliers such as FixHepC.com that deliver life-saving Hepatitis C treatment worldwide in just 1-3 weeks.
If you go on your own, this is what you need to do: you need to contact credible pharmaceutical companies in India that have been given the license to produce generic Harvoni and talk to them about your condition. You need to send a doctor’s prescription and identity proof and an invoice will be sent by their side. You will be required to give your address and chose the payment mode to place the order. Once the payment has been made, the drug will be shipped to your home. Although, travelling to India for the treatment of Hepatitis C is a common sight and companies are even setting up medical related trips for their employees, but it is more a feasible option to order the drug online from licensed companies and save the travelling expense. In the end, the main purpose of the Hepatitis C patients is to get the drug which does not necessarily means to travel abroad.
If you let FixHepC.com help you, we will arrange everything for you and secure shipment of active molecules such as sofosbuvir and ledipasvir on your behalf. Contact us with your needs and we will work together to get you the Hepatitis C medications you're in need of.
