A Glitter of Hope: The Indian generic market and the prospect of recovery for HCV patients worldwide.

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.