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A Dallas Buyers Club-style operation that helps hepatitis C patients get lifesaving drugs at knockdown prices plans to go a step further for World Aids Day on Tuesday – free drugs for those who can least afford them.
Nearly a quarter of a million Australians carry hepatitis C, a “viral time bomb” that kills half a million people worldwide each year, according to the World Health Organisation.
Yet a simple lifesaving fix – a course of one pill a day for 12 weeks – has been priced beyond the reach of all but the wealthy by giant pharmaceutical company and patent owner Gilead Sciences, which charges patients in the United States $US84,000 ($117,000) … or $1000 a pill.
Price negotiations between Gilead and Australia’s health department have been dragging on for months and, with no sign of a deal, lives are on the line given an average of two hepatitis C patients die every day here.
Which is why two months ago, as Fairfax Media revealed, a campaigning group of sufferers and doctors launched a Dallas Buyers Club operation to source and test generic versions of Gilead’s drugs – Sovaldi and Harvoni – from manufacturers in China, India and Bangladesh for about $20 a pill.
Since the FixHepC Buyers Club was started by father-and-son team Dr John and Dr James Freeman, tens of thousands of people in more than 100 countries have made several million visits to the fixhepc.com website.