Ill New Zealanders who can't
afford to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for Hepatitis C
treatment are being thrown a lifeline by an Australian drug buyers club.
Around 50,000 New Zealanders have the chronic
blood-borne disease and they're beginning to travel over the ditch to
pick up the new wonder drugs at a fraction of the price.
Hazel Heal has lived with Hepatitis C for 30 years
and was on the verge of re-mortgaging her home to pay for her expensive
medication.
One step away from needing a liver transplant, she stumbled across the Australian Fix Hep C buyers club.
She says it's been extremely successful and she's managed to normalise her liver.
Hepatitis C affects one in 100 Kiwis and can lead to liver failure or cancer.
Treatment takes a long time, is painful, and only has a 50 percent success rate.
Now a new drug with a 95 percent cure rate is available but with a hefty price tag – $100,000 for 12 weeks of medication.
But Australian doctors have found a way to import the drug at a fraction of the price.
"It
is possible in countries that don't observe the patent to purchase the
medicine," says Dr James Freeman, Fix Hep C creator. "It is also
possible to import the medicine, which means the average patient with
Hep C can get themselves treated for a couple of thousand dollars."
They got the idea from movie Dallas Buyers Club, which found the cheap way to import HIV medication into America.
So Kiwis are heading across the Tasman for the low-cost treatment.
"What
it's done is its provisioned hope for people," Dr Freeman says. "Hope
that they can get cured and pretty much enjoy a normal life."
That's something Ms Heal thought she'd never have.
"Having
the drug coursing through my blood has been my normal and now it's
gone, and I honestly feel young again," she says. "I feel like I have a
second chance at being 20 years old again and it's amazing."
New Zealand's drug-buying agency Pharmac says while the treatment appears effective, it's still considering whether to fund it.
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