TOPIC: Alibaba - Kg Quantities of Sofosbuvir

Shoot, if I wasn't already cured, I'd be putting the stuff on my cornflakes!

The questions are;

- Can the manufacturer accurately recreate an analogue of the original chemical?
- Can they do so for all production batches?
- How robust is their supply chain?

In the case of Mesochem that you mention, answers to all of the above have been proven over the last 12 months or so. They are a tried and tested supplier.

It appears there is now some more competition which is good for HCV sufferers worldwide as long as it doesn't drive market prices down to the stage where quality of product and integrity of supply are compromised.

So unless there is evidence to the contrary, I would suppose that the chinese products are the genuine article (minus the Gilead brand name, of course).

[Why is it that people in the west have the idea that china produces fake products? Is this just more subtle brain-washing from Big Pharma?]

Hi Gaj,

My statement about a general perception that chinese products might be fake wasn't aimed at anything you said (that's why I put it in brackets). I remember when I was growing up, anything with a "Made in China" label was thought to be cheap and inferior. So that was a side thought aimed at myself just as much as anyone else.

I get where you are coming from now.....and Japan used to make those tiny transistor radios and miniature cameras that were clever but just toys huh?

Still, it does seem to me that a lot of people come on this forum with big doubts about whether generics are "the real deal" or whether they work as well as the branded product....

I think that also applies to most other generic medications. When pharmacists offer a choice, many people choose the more expensive brand name item because "the one the doctor prescribed must be better".

So the point I was trying to make was that it seems fair to suppose that the people who work in those Chinese companies are trained and experienced chemists. And most probably they take pride in their skills, just like any other professional. Why would they be making anything other than the real deal?

Yes, hands up anyone who owns an iDevice or any one of thousands of 'quality' consumer items which are manufactured there to take advantage of both comparative costs and a skilled and well trained labour force.

Me, I have a degree in chemistry and I spent many hours in the lab mixing reagents and purifying the product... I hated it. But the idea that a professional chemist can make 99.9% pure product once he knows the target formula doesn't surprise me at all. And once an NMR spectrum is available for a reference molecule, its pretty easy for a professional chemist to verify that he has made the real deal. So yeah, I stand by my original statement - until there is evidence to the contrary, its reasonable to suppose that the chinese products are the genuine article.

I will grant you that in most cases. My point being that with such a high demand for these medications and the difficulties in getting a clear view across the border of 'who is who' in the Chinese arena, it is advisable to exercise caution until verification can occur. In much the same way as 3,6-diacetyl morphine is largely harmless to the human body when correctly manufactured, you probably don't want some knocked up by someone with a fail in first year chemistry in their back shed


Cheers,