Yes Tina, I agree. An outstanding negotiation, thank you to whoever was responsible. (Does anyone know their name(s)?)

No doubt what Dr James and Greg Jefferys have been doing helped.

Merry Christmas to all.

They certainly put Tassie on the map.

Hi dointime,

“I don’t doubt that none of this would have come about without the Doc and Greg’s courageous stance on the use of generics. This has been a momentous year for hepC treatment. I have lived through it myself. At the start of the year I had no prospects of obtaining the meds I needed. By the end of the year I had my meds, there were multiple choices of meds and trusted methods of obtaining them. ”

says it all.

Yes isaing4 we are lucky in that sense in Australia, but a very expensive waste of money which could be going elsewhere if we chose to use generics. Politics ARGH,,,, I hope also some governments overseas will decide to open the back door also and let in the the generics from the Beacons, Inceptas and Natcos etc, we can dream perhaps,,,

South Africa showed the way with HIV, I hope some people in power can see the logic of a population that is cured of hepc and can once again contribute instead of drowning in this miserable viral curse for years on end.

Speaking to various liver clinics in Sydney they have 2-3 month waiting lists already for the DAAs from Greeead, they also do not intend to ramp (put on more staff) up as on the DAAs we need little management, people I know are still logging into gp2u to get scripts, a month or two or three or four of new life is worth every penny, one person actually said to me “why should the taxpayer foot the bill for my stupid mistake 30 years ago, I can afford it so I am going ahead with gp2u and getting cured long before the liver clinics in Sydney can see me”

And yes I agree without Dr James intervention and Greg Jefferies ground breaking work we would not be where we are now, Australians of the year votes for the pair of em, the bloody UN and WHO should be thanking them for goodness sakes.

Subvert the dominant paradigm ! Always ask “WHY?” and always ask WHY NOT?

jim

Hi Sir,

Yes, I believe that is what Jimmy is saying, generics would be cheaper and we could use the saved money elsewhere.

Based on current Indian/Pakistani generics bulk buy prices it would appear possible to treat the whole Australian HCV population of approx. 230,000 for less than half a billion A$ (including those like myself who require 24wks). Yet our government has chosen the brand name path for one billion to treat what will probably turn out to be only a small proportion of those infected.

So:

Generics
A$500,000,000/230,000 = A$2,174 or US$1,522 avg per treatment max cost if everyone wants treatment.

Or

Branded
A$1,000,000,000/230,000 = A$4,348 or US$3,440 avg per treatment assuming we can process at least 46,000 treatments per year (but we pay the full billion either way)

IMHO the first option sounds like better economics and I suspect average cost would be significantly less than the generous price I have allowed.

And a spare half a billion dollars is quite a bit of money that could be used by our medical system to treat other ailments.

Sure, absolutely Generics would be way less then brand names I wasn’t sure what he
was suggesting you cleared it up nicely.

No doubt,if every country spent on Generics everyone would be treated for far less then is being spent,
then you also have cancer drugs the same could be applied too them.

if your assumption is correct, at 3/4 k per treatment its the lowest prices any rich country has
manage to negotiate that I am aware of which is amazing.

I guess, my over all feeling is if the pricing is around 2/3/4 K per treatment its a fantastic result for you
guys, I would hope it means the rest of the world starts to think about trying to lower what they pay.

Its obvious it can be done.