The month of April was
when I joined as the outreach coordinator for Soul of Healing and its
subsidiary Sunny Pharma. A nonprofit based in the United States its principle
aim was providing for the medication required to eliminate the virus. During the course of my work I have gained
substantial information about Hep C, its treatment requirements and a part of
how the pharmaceutical industry operates. Gilead Sciences holds the patent to
the most sought after direct acting antiviral (DAA).
Harvoni, Sovaldi and Epclusa was first
released and approved by the FDA of the United States. It was subsequently
released in the Indian market in the form of generics licensed by Gilead to 14
major Indian Pharmaceutical companies. Millions
worldwide do not have the knowledge of its availability in the Indian
market. The prices of the drugs were
priced at a whopping $94,500 for Harvoni, $84000 for Sovaldi and $74,760 for
the recently released Epclusa. The Indian market however has a price more
humane although still an uphill task for the local population to afford.
The price ranged from
INR 19,900 for one bottle of Sovaldi, and INR 25000 per bottle each for Harvoni
and Epclusa. The latter has not been released yet in the Indian market however
it is available under the generic name of Velpanat in Nepal by Natco Pharma. With
such a differential price structure and the inability of millions in the United
States and Europe to purchase the original, the Indian generics are a glitter
of hope to those who want to recover and eliminate the virus.
Our nonprofit was
established to provide access to the medications for treating Hep C. My job as
the outreach coordinator began by reaching out to those who had lost hope in
their system unable to afford $95000. During the past year I have interacted
with many who had the same financial situation in utter despair trying to find
their life saving medication. The generic market was their hope which we
successfully provided.
During the course of
the year it has been hectic as well as challenging to remain in collaboration
and negotiation with big Indian pharmaceutical companies. Our first major
partnership was with Dr. Reddy’s Laboratory, although we through local partners
procured other generics from Hetero, Mylan, Cipla and Natco. Towards the end of
the year we even procured and entered into collaboration with Beacon
Pharmaceuticals from Bangladesh which had released its own version of generic
Epclusa.
With many Pharma
companies on the run in manufacturing generics there is hope as well as
financial security especially with people from countries like the USA where the
price is out of reach for the general public. Our nonprofit has successfully
negotiated prices with pharmaceutical companies to make it affordable and our
objective for the people in developed countries to have it accessible at a
negligible cost with dedicated service of delivery, communication and
coordination.
Indian generics have a
huge market for the rest of the world. Prices of medication in the west are
skyrocketing and most of the health insurance companies are finding it very
difficult to approve medications for their patients. Similar problems are faced
by the local population here in India where the local prices set are
unaffordable for the general public most who survive on less than a dollar per
day.
With time we have been
able to successfully negotiate affordable rates for our prescription assistance
program and we have served not countries but continents of America, Africa,
Europe and Asia. We have been able to provide medications to many who had lost
hope in life of ever finding a cure for a life threatening disease they were
living with.
The glitter of hope
provided by the generic market in India with a superior quality is here to stay
and the future of course looks bright. People need to know and be fully aware
that there is no difference between the compositions and those generics are
equally efficient in eliminating the virus. It is painstakingly difficult to
live with a virus that is slowly taking a living body closer to death. It is
wiser to opt for an easy, affordable and accessible treatment that will not
only get your body back, but add more years to life.
Soul of Healing with its subsidiary Sunny Pharma based in Bangalore provides through its PAP generic medication that can treat Hep C. For more information please feel free to visit and contact us.