Aussie duo find global consumers for Indian generics

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MUMBAI: Remember Ron the rodeo cowboy from the Oscar-winning film Dallas Buyers Club? The biopic portrayed the story of Ron Woodroof, an AIDS patient in the mid-1980s who signed up for an experimental AIDS treatment movement. He smuggled unapproved drugs into Texas for treating his symptoms and distributed them to fellow patients at a time when the disease was highly stigmatised. There’s now an Australian parallel, of sorts, with an Indian twist.

Australian Greg Jefferys, 62, is the unlikely protagonist of this story. Himself a Hepatitis C survivor, Jefferys has become a Ron for several who suffer from the potentially fatal viral infection. And just like Ron, who didn’t back off in the face of resistance from US regulators, Jefferys’ crusade has been equally relentless.

Together with fellow Australian, Dr James Freeman, Jefferys seeks to provide Hep C patients affordable versions of newly discovered drugs Sofosbuvir and Daclatasvir, which have a 100% cure rate in treating the liver disease. By doing so, the duo’s global coalition has become an unlikely ambassador for India’s generic drug industry, even when as it’s facing unprecedented flak across developed western markets for failing quality standards.

At full price, the medicines can cost as much as $80,000 for a full course. Generic versions are available for a fraction of that in India. Of course, these cheaper versions are meant for sale locally and in poor and developing markets. But even in the developed world, there are many who can’t afford these drugs.

That’s where Freeman and Jefferys come in. They are reaching out to patients in Europe and beyond, trying to convince them to use generic versions. Their endeavour has turned out to be an underground startup of sorts that connects patients and doctors to generic drug suppliers in India, this gaining access to low-cost versions.

“There is very little mainstream coverage of the success of Indian generics in the US and other parts of the world, because of which you still have doctors who refuse treating their patients with generic drugs,” Jefferys told ET during his latest trip to Mumbai. “There is ignorance on part of patients, and prejudice on part of doctors about generic drugs.”

This has far-reaching implications since doctors are refusing to prescribe or monitor patients, “even telling patients not to come back if they have taken generics,” he said.