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A Dunedin woman who has imported new generation hepatitis C drugs she says will save her life wants to get her message out to others to source them from a ‘‘buyers’ club” in Australia.
Earlier this year, law student Hazel Heal was on the verge of needing a liver transplant, but this week the virus was all but undetectable in blood tests.
Ms Heal bought drugs in Australia for $3800, when in New Zealand they would have cost $84,000.
Her call comes just days after the Australian Government announced a $1 billion investment in the ground-breaking treatments to help cure the 230,000 Australians living with the disease.
But despite an almost 100% success rate for the new drugs, and an estimated 50,000 sufferers with increasing rates of liver cancer, New Zealand seems unlikely to follow suit.
Read more…http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/368046/hep-c-patient-goes-offshore-cure