I'm with you on this, Derri.  I've watched too many terminally ill people amongst my relatives and friends struggle to get the drugs they needed for treatment, only to have to forego them because they weren't covered. Well, two, but that's two too many.

Another friend of mine had Hepatitis C; because he'd no job, he wasn't able to get the meds he needed to help him live a better life.  After several years of this merry-go-round, his doctor was finally able to get him into a trial for a new treatment, and he is considered cured.  Now that the treatment is FDA-approved, the trials have stopped and the likelihood of any patients getting free treatments have greatly diminished.  It's a vicious circle.

Kat
-------Original Message-------
From: Deri James <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: 05/05/03 12:45 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: civil war, was re. earthquake
I was not talking about drugs which get rid of a hedache or numb
depression
(some of which are now out of patent), I meant the drugs which (if you
have a
certain condition) stop you from dying of that condition.

How do you feel aabout the Swiss company which makes Glivec (treats
certain
forms of leukaemia - but you must continue taking the drug)? They received
FDA approval in record time largely due to an extremely successful trial
in
South Korea. Once the FDA approval was given the free doses for the drug
was
withdrawn and the full price ($1300 per month) was imposed. Given the
average
wage in Korea and the fact these were terminally ill people (so unlikely
to
be in employment), the drug company are saying  "thank you for your help
in
getting FDA approval (which will be worth billions to us over the next 30
years) - you can die now".

According to Cipla (the Indian manufacturer who makes "generic" versions
of
other life saving drugs) the Glivec capsules can be made, packaged,
shipped
for about 80 cents each (with a profit). Incidentally, Beth, the whole
Indian
generics industry is to be shutdown next year, the Indian parliament
finally
buckled under extreme US pressure threatening draconian trade sanctions -
just leaves Brazil as a holdout.

I watched an extremely interesting program on this the other night:-

<a target=_blank
href="http://www.channel4.co.uk/health/microsites/D/dying_for_drugs/index.html">http://www.channel4.co.uk/health/microsites/D/dying_for_drugs/index.html</a>

It seemed very well researched, and the web site provides links to many
primary sources to ratify the information given in the programme. At least
none of the drug companies have issued writs against the programme makers
yet, and they could probably afford to do so if they thought the damning
information was untrue.

Cheers

Deri
>