I have now left Barcelona and returned to the UK where my wife and I are touring Britain in an old motorhome.
Every five years since our children became adults we have come to the UK to travel through the English countryside of our “mother land” for 12 weeks.
It takes us about five years to save the money then we fly here and buy a second hand motorhome and fit it out as our little home on wheels and spend our time visiting places of historic or natural interest.
This year we have joined the National Trust and English Heritage so will spent time visiting castles and old stately homes and the many places of nature beauty across Britain.
Fortunately, because of the wonders of WiFi and the internet I am still able to keep in contact with everyone one and my small group of associates in India and Tasmania. So we are are to keep generic Hep C treatments flowing out into the world, to the people who need them.
The news about the effects and repercussions of Dr Freeman’s presentation have been truly profound.
One person I know, who has been attending the EASL conferences for ten years wrote and told me that she had never heard such louod and long lasting applause ever before at EASL.
At last those doctors who were keenly aware of the great injustices being inflicted on people by companies like Gilead and BMS had a rallying point and a leader, a spokeman, a focal point.
During question time doctor after doctor stood and expressed their profound frustration and anger at seeing patients dying when they knew that the cure was easily available and access treatment was being blocked either by price or government regulations or both.
Prior to Dr Freeman’s presentation he and I had met with another co-author of the Freeman paper, Dr Andrew Hill from the Imperial Colledge in London.
Before the presentation we all met for lunch, Dr Freeman, Dr Hill and Dr HIll’s two research assistants Dis and Anna.
It was a very interesting lunch and very wonderful for me to be able to sit with three other people who were happy to talk for hours about Hep C and Hep C treatment options because usually there is no-one that I can talk about these things with.
So we sat and talked about all the recent developments. Dr HIll’s two research assistants brought wonderful fresh insights into the discussion.
Of all the Hep C related issues discussed one stands out in my memory, this relates to the use of Chinese APIs in the treatment of Hep C. This came up because I mentioned the Serbian doctor’s refusal to allow her patient to be treated with Australian generics made from Chinese APIs.
The story was related of a man with Hep C who purchased the APIs through Mesochem and, not having access to capsules or filler to bulk out the API simply used a set of micro-scales and divided the API into 84 equal doses and took them wrapped in a bit of rice paper.
He was cured.
So this leads me to the next subject of discussion, on the next page, and that is what about Chinese APIs as a viable treatment option.
They are still be far the cheapest option and also very easy to ship in the mail because the parcel is no larger than a letter or document envelope.
So in my next post I will review what we know about APIs, their use, cost, advantages and disadvantages
