Sir, your post is so far offtopic, it might as well have been made as a new thread starter.

In your zeal to to ‘go off on one’ and create a withering put-down, you make points that have absolutely no relevance to the debates taking place on this thread.

Pathetic. I’m out.

Thanks for your reply Doc. A few points to address:

It’s pure speculation to suggest that large business corps are undervaluing their import costs. Individuals and small operations do it, as you pointed out, to cut the duty paid. It’s not such an issue for big corporations because they can offset those duties, and nor is it easy for them to do it even if they wanted to without some very creative accounting.

Your market position is currently the purchase of enough Dac to treat maybe a couple of thousand patients so far? And not all treated at the same time from one bulk purchase, so a kilo-or-two at a time? Big operations will be buying by the drum, and will probably be getting a current price that’s tied into a contract to purchase a helluva lot more.

Dac might be new in India, but it’s generic APis have been around a lot longer than that, and the price of the generic has been dictated by the world market

Are the major manufacturers still willingly paying those high prices in the face of cheaper products in the burgeoning DAA generics market?

Based on the figures in the article I linked, your calculations put the price of generic Harvoni at about US$4.50 a pill.(or less than US$400 for a twelve week treatment.

Those are some good points you raise Tomas.

I don’t know if there are any good research statistics on this (I’ve never come across any), but I doubt there’s any argument against living healthily giving your body the best chance to defeat this virus.

But (and there is a but), following a particular lifestyle does not make a given in how your health will end up. Taking myself and the people I know (sure, anecdotal) I drank like a fish, probably to the point of alcoholism, for over thirty years (having hepc throughout) until I stopped a couple of years ago. I also always ate what I wanted and have been overweight to varying degrees for most of my adult life. On the plus side, I’ve always excercised well, kept fit, and since I was diagnosed with hepc about 13 years ago I have taken high daily doses of curcumin and milk thistle. My bloods before starting treatment last September were similar to yours (apart from a high GGT of 357), and a fibroscan I had last November gave a ‘normal’ reading of 4.7. Whilst I would not advocate anyone, with or without hepc, following my lifestyle, I have pretty much got away with it.

My brother, who has been an intravenous drug user on-and-off throughout his adult life and drank moderately when off the drugs, started suffering liver failure over 10 years ago and had a liver transplant about 2 years ago.

A mutual friend, who used intravenous drugs with my brother briefly over 30 years ago and drank and smoked fairly moderately afterward living quite a healthy lifestyle, died from liver failure over 5 years ago. He’d stopped drinking and smoking 4 years before he died.

Another mutual friend, who also used intravenous drugs briefly with my brother in the early days, has drank and smoked heavily for the rest of his life but otherwise kept fit and looked after his weight. He’s still doing ok health-wise.

The point I’m trying to make is that, whilst you’re right about looking after yourself, it’s still something of a lottery. And living a particular lifestyle certainly doesn’t preclude one from getting cleared from hepc.

Sorry if Doc James and Myself appeared to take your thread offtopic with our exchange, but there was an important point in there which addresses the point raised in your last paragraph. I’ve always tried to have a positive outlook and live my life to the full, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it so far. As Doc James said, the future is always a book full of empty pages in which one has the ability to write many different stories. And we do try to keep a sense of humour on this forum .

Anyway, thanks for the thoughtful post. It made me think about a few of my perceptions, for sure.

I stopped drinking a couple of years ago, but all this aggro is making me think I shoudn’t have .

Cheers (raising my bottle of 0.0% Becks Blue)

Just deleted another sock puppet ‘Jag25’ ranting and raving and throwing insults about. Claims also to now be a vigilante against meds suppliers he doesn’t like. Like I said, a busy few hours ahead.

Just to clarify Sir’s post: Another sock puppet popped up quickly after I suspended ‘abal’, claiming to be a silent observer (who’d only just joined the forum ) and carrying on in the same mode as ‘abal’. So I banned him and deleted his post as Sir was in the process of replying to it. Looks like we’ve got our work cut out tonight. Hopefully the mods from Oz (sounds like a tribute band name) will be online soon to help out.

That’s a very good set of results Tomas. With your liver functioning so well, and you being treatment naive, you’re probably an ideal candidate for clearing your hepc on the new DAAs.

Ok, I’ve suspended abal, who has clearly joined the forum only to discourage members from obtaining Indian generic meds from several trusted sources.

Whether abal is a sock puppet for one particular outfit offering a package deal (my own suspicion), a troll for big pharma, or just a troll will have to be ascertained by fixhepc management.