Hi GF,

I support and agree with your statements about accessing generic HCV medications and doing it from the available sources as soon as possible, however I disagree with other parts of your post.

The only way to ensure continued supply of generics and any chance of change for the better to patent laws and the TPP is to make as many of the general public as possible aware and supportive of our position. It is only by making them aware of the injustices involved that we have a chance of making changes or even allowing what is currently happening to continue. And the best way to achieve that is for people to advocate by as many different means as possible.

That includes getting some sort of generic supportive comment into any sites we can. Sometimes that may mean toning down our comments from what we truly feel but as long as they still show generics in a positive light or paint big pharma to be profit rather than health driven they are doing their job. Occasionally a particular site will block everything and in that case we need to move on and find at least two other sites that will allow our comments to get out to the public.

Change often takes longer than we would like and can make us impatient but as long as we are making one more person aware of the situation our actions are never useless.

And I agree with Gaj above- what makes us all join this movement is the motivation: it is not fair. it is not right. It is anti human. We are the 99.5%. We will not be silenced on the fairness part- it is incredible we have been given this legal way to “play the game” but we shouldn’t have to, it is simpler than all that. We have to keep shouting about the right and wrong, in certain places, as well as promoting the access and info now, everywhere, in case it changes. If it can change for the worse, people power can change it for better. If we can’t change patent laws, we can apply enough public pressure to change corporate conduct. Basically what we are doing is make it less profitable to be an a**hole. It is already working- and for that to work we need to shine a light on the issue, not wrestle in the shadow on their terms.

Thanks GF,

I would like to note that FixHepC is an international site which of course includes many American friends.

But to respond to your comments:

Looking at the US situation from a distance as I do, it would seem that the commercial import and onselling of patented medicines is illegal. But there appears to be a reasonable amount of doubt around the situation regarding an individual importing the same items for their own use despite what one FDA employee may have written in response to a question by a member of the public/this forum. It would seem that the courts would need to make that decision. I’m not aware of the FDA permanently confiscating these individual imports and/or taking the individual importers to court to get a determination in favour of it being illegal which leads me to suspect that they may not have a lot of confidence that they would win.

Of course that may change in the future as you point out and you also comment about the majority not being aware of generics and that is very true. So as I see it we need to advocate for how and where to get “the cure NOW” in those places that allow us and also educate people about existence of these generics in the other more restrictive places so that readers become aware of their existence and can then seek them out both now and into the future.

There are probably something like 180 million people in the world with HCV who need treatment. Those who are lucky enough to have become aware of the availability of generics should get treatment now…….and ‘pay it forward’ by passing on the word to as many people as possible that these medications are available so that others can seek similar opportunities.

Good day Mike,
Thanks for the posts again, FYI, I posted on the 1st site, about Dr. Freeman’s efforts using generics to successfully treat patients and included UPI link for further info Gotta keep up the pressure wherever we can. People need to know what’s available.