Regular readers of this blog might recall a couple of months back I posted how Vietnam had negotiated a bulk purchase of Hepatitis C medicines from the Indian pharmaceutical manufacturer Hetero. The Vietnam government negoitated with Hetero and spent (as I recall) US$2 billion and got a price of about US$750 per treatment for generic Harvoni and a little less for generic Sofosbuvir and Daclatasvir.
Vietnam also allows its pharmacists to import generic Hepatitis C medicines direct from India or Bangladesh and to re-sell them direct to patients.
Below is a little email conversation I had yesterday from Vietnam explaining the situation.
Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2016 16:58:47 +0700
Subject: Start My Treatment of Hep C with Indian Generic Hecinat -LP
From: c ###### @gmail.com
To: gregjefferys@outlook.com
Dear Mr. Greg Jefferys,
I am happy that you keep doing great efforts to help people with Hep C around the world.
I am glad to inform you that I am now on day 5 of treatment with Indian Generic Hepcinat - LP. This medicine from India is now easily available in Vietnam with very affordable cost of about 446 USD per bottle (28 pills). We dont need any doctor’s prescription to get that med. We just need to do some bloodwork prior to treatment to decide the treatment period, then We can make order this med online. The med will be delivered to our door just some hours after ordering (easy like we buy some soft drinks in convenient store).
Thank you so much for your information on treatment of hep C. With your information, I am of more motivated in finding ways of kicking the stubborn HCV out of my body.
With my best regards,
C###### from Hanoi, Vietnam
On Friday, 29 April 2016, greg jefferys wrote:
HI Chu
Thanks for informing me of the situation in Vietnam.
Could you kindly inform me if a person buys the medicines from a hospital or a government agency or a pharmacy
I would like to publish this information on my website\
thanks and best wishes
Greg
Dear Mr. GregJefferys,
Good Afternoon from Hanoi,
We buy Hepcinat - LP from the pharmacist. Here in Vietnam, a lot of pharmacists import generic medicines for hep C from India and Bangladesh with the cost from 450 to 800 USD per bottle. As far as I know, the govermental and private hospitals also provide the medicines with almost double the cost we have from pharmacist. Anyway, our Hep C patients are now all happy as we can access to affordable treatment. The medicine is finally available and Hepc C is more or less like a flu now.
Thank you again.
C####### FROM HANOI
Commonsense and Compassion
So here is a government that uses common sense and compassion to help its citizens access Hep C treatment. The Vietnam government is a government that is not being controlled by the billionaires who run Big Pharma.
Who would have thought that the the people of Vietnam have better access to Hepatitis treatment than the people in the USA, Canada, Italy and other so called “great powers”.
So Vietnam is now a place that you can fly to to buy your Hepatitis C treatment. The doors are opening, the options are increasing and the pressure is building on the blood sucking parasites who run Big Pharma.