“Hi Cindi,

You are amazing!

I can’t give a lot of help other than to suggest that the specialist at RPA is likely more than aware of the generics and where they can be sourced. I suspect your best option is to be your friends medical advocate and first find out:

Why he hasn’t been offered compassionate treatment?
Is he physically able to use DAAs? i.e. branded Sovaldi or whatever.
What, if any, are his other options?

So, find out as much as you can about how the specialist (his regular one?) views his patients situation/prognosis first. Be your friends health advocate first rather than a Generics advocate. This may even give some clue as to the likely response when/if you do bring up the subject of generics.

Also, try and contact Joan from this site. I believe I saw her comment in one of her posts that she was being supported by RPA in use of generics so may be able to provide guidance.

G

Cindi;

Last time I went to the RPA seeking intervention ( as you know I had been listed with them for suitable trials, and gone down to Sydney for routine appointments accordingly) – I was told that their cut off for DAA provision (at the time I thik it was sofosbuvir) on compassionate grounds was Meld 15. Because my Meld score was calculated by them at the time at 12 – they could not give it to me. This may due to Pharma’s stipulations or simply where they have had to draw the line on the basis of the quantity made available. Otherwise, I found the RPA Prof. & staff very kind considering that I wasn’t technically one of their patients – they even checked the lesions on my MRI scans for a while – until I was referred here to a Brisbane surgeon now checking 12 weekly.
Your friend sounds quite unwell and from all you have said on forum and told me by phone – I imagine your friend may be eligible for the DAA’s ( if he again transplant listed it would seem unlikely that his Meld score wouldnt be sufficiently or reasonably high. Take his bloods, fibroscan, meds list, dot pointed recent history of symptoms & events etc – the usual. Oops sorry have to rush to work. …will get back if I think of anything more useful to say ..

He needs the Sof because dac is no good on its own. But the Prof I assume is a liver specialist so he’ll know that. Maybe riba too but that won’t be a problem. I don’t know of any comp access available ATM other than the BMS dac. I think the Abbvie programme is done and haven’t heard of Gilead offering anything. It’s almost 4 months now since Royal Hobart agreed to put me on the dac comp access programme knowing I would be taking it with generic Sof. And last I heard, BMS didn’t care that people were using their dac with generic Sof.

But note that the Prof probably won’t be able to write a script for generic Sof in his capacity as a public clinic liver specialist. You may be able to see him privately to get it which is what I did. Or you can go through James or somebody else who will write it.