Hi Jo, I’m gonna tell you a little story you might find interesting.
Way, way back in sofosbuvir history now … when I saw the price Gilead was setting on their drug, I knew I wouldn’t be getting it through insurance. I recognized that the price would dictate rationing and I wasn’t sick enough. And to top it off I was new to the health plan and they could dismiss my case as a pre-existing condition and make me wait a couple years at least to get it.
As soon as the news broke about India possibly rejecting Gilead’s patent I knew what I would be doing …. medical tourism. I scoured the internet looking for anything I could find on when those drugs would be available. I searched out articles by Brook Baker and found Fierce Pharma’s website (which I swear was knocked down or somehow inaccessible to me for a while) and basically anything that talked about Hep C generics in India.
In one of those searches I came across a forum post … if I remember correctly the forum was hosted in the UK, but I don’t remember for certain. In that post, an expatriate woman living in Panama stated clearly that she would go to India to get her meds if she had to. I’m pretty sure her name was Jo. Aha! So I wasn’t the only person thinking along these lines.
So, because of this “Jo” person, every so often, maybe once every month or two, I’d go back and search for people doing the medical tourism thing and kept looking to see if you’d found the answer. It was in one of those searches that I found a post about a blog … by some guy in Australia … who was planning to go to India to get his meds. BOOM!
I don’t remember exactly where I first heard about Twinvir, maybe Greg’s blog, maybe elsewhere … but somewhere in that time frame I scheduled an appointment with a Hepatologist (two month wait,) got my blood work done and then again, somewhere in that time frame, news popped up about Mesochem (that almost certainly was from Greg’s blog.) I started scheduling my trip before I even got my blood results back. Then, right before my trip, Greg mentioned about a new site with a forum and a buyer’s club.
I joined this site on September 10 and asked my first question I think the next day … about Twinvir … post number 111. Seems like forever ago.
Now it’s true that I would have found the meds eventually anyway, but I want you to know … Finding your post that day gave me the push to start searching in earnest and in going back looking for more posts from you I found my way here. Because of your post I likely got my treatment months earlier than I would have otherwise.
So, my sincere congratulations on your successful treatment Jo, and thank you for being a part of mine.
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