Hi Kristen,

I remember the difficulties you experienced during your journey to the cure. We were all on the edge of our seat, waiting for some good news on your behalf. Had it not been for your ability to write an Oscar worthy appeal, you would not have succeeded in getting through to them. 

I think an honor like that is well overdue for Greg Jeffreys. He risked a lot to get people the help they needed then and continues his fight for all of us afflicted with this disease. He’s quite a guy and HCV advocate. His name will certainly go down in Hep C history!

I have been involved in some Facebook groups for some time now, one of which is run by the man in Australia who has basically made it his life's mission to get people generic meds for cheap.  He's been nominated for person of the year or something (I'm obviously not Australian).  He's getting generics from India to people in all different countries, entire treatments for just a couple hundred dollars.  At first I wasn't sure how I felt about it but watching these people come back undetected one after another is pleasing! Many of them talk about how their doctor's were hesitant at first but agreed to monitor their care on the generics. It's sad that so many people have to turn to a man clear across the globe to get them the meds that will cure them.  I'm still torn on the topic overall as while plenty of people do seem educated on the matter and as though they've done their research, there are equally as many that seem to have been diagnosed within the last few months, seem very uneducated about the disease and the meds and are taking it upon themselves to buy DAA's and import them. 

Tanner - we've never met, I'm like an obnoxious brood of cicadas that disappears and then reappears and then well you know....  Anyway - I read your saga on Acreedo/Express Scripts and i had flashbacks. They are the worst. Some people here can vouch for the battles I had with them to get my last month of meds. They decided to screw up just about the time my riba-rage was in full swing. I spent hours on the phone with those idiots. Finally my treatment team came to the rescue, no idea how they did it but they got my last month of meds filled at a local specialty pharmacy and sent them to me by courier just in time. Then Acreedo kept calling me for like 3 months asking if I was ready for my refills (after I was done). In hindsight, I should've taken them, sold them on the black market and gone on vacation. Oh well, we live and we learn.

Yay Tanner!

It really won't be long now - epclusa is on it's way eh!

Your good work is paying off.  Very good news today! C.  : )

Lam, 

Me too, I wonder how long Gilead will be rescuing people (so exclusively) at their currently high set price range for Vosevi - (quite a while I think!), but ... maybe the generic price reductions in Epclusa will somehow/possibly bring the price of Vosevi down?? - I have a feeling their completely unique and marvelous (relatively newish) 3/4A VOX would not be high on Gileads list of drugs they would wish to review for price reduction any time soon, so, IF Vosevi comes down, i would venture that it would possibly just be the effect of them discounting VEL (not the VOX component).

I think doubles can compete well with other doubles (by performance and by their pricing/marketplace share), but doubles just truly cannot complete on equal footing with our triple Vosevi (not entirely anyway) - even our wonderful double Mav cannot hold an equal competition with the triple Vosevi.

It will prove interesting to see how long Gilead can run with Vosevi at their same current price offers. 

5,

I always want to see your Gifs! heehee. C.

Nice to see the cost of Epclusa coming down finally in the US with a generic but I think you can be sure Vosevi will still stay at $78,000 for three months. You have always been able to import generic Epclusa from India for about $1000 for three months but Gilead does not license generic Vosevi to other countries yet. They will make as much profit from Vosevi for as long as they can get away with it.

i was gonna post a breath in and out gif but it was huge and gave me stress...hahaha

so.. yes, we can know that tanner will be on tx soon

Deep breath everybody.  Tanner is going to be "on treatment" in no time.  Look at her go!

Hey tanner, 

I will be a bit off topic here (ie. you started this thread on "generics"), but i am not sure (of the multiple threads you have started and communicated on) which one is best identified to you - you don't seem to have one big ongoing thread in the newcomer's area, and you can't start a "on-treatment" one of your own to which we can all keep coming back to, as were haven't (quite) got your drugs started yet (BUT we're close! : )) - so i am just going to plug this in here for now and see if it catches up with you before you move on to another thread ... I WAS concerned and curious about your seizure activity of late (during this stressful waiting period) ... thus why i was asking you this question on one of your other threads ...

... " Tanner, I so feel for you and this frustrating wait you are going through, and all the bad communications you are getting instead of only the correct ones we want to hear - it is very concerning to hear about your seizure activity (2 during this stressful waiting period?) - what do you usually take to not have seizure activity increase?? and/or, what did you have to do for these two episodes? Touching what STL's little grandson goes through with his seizures. Do you have to have a sleep too? Or, how do yours go for you. I hope you do not get them often. " ...

I hope you don't mind that I am chasing you around the site with the same question, but I am also thinking you may have never seen it. 

Mainly, i just want to say that you are certainly adopting the right defense in this horrid waiting period, hopeful (because you know it WILL happen, you WILL see them finally getting it all straightened away) but knowing Murphies Law will still apply for a bit, that they may well keep throwing objects in your way for you to be frustrated in tripping over for a while yet. Hang in there.

Generics (in the US) IS an interesting turn! Later, C.

I’ve got a call into my pharmacist to find out if the generic version is available in the US yet. Everything I’ve read so far, says it was going to be released in January. Could be they’re still working out the final details. The pricing I’m seeing drops the per pill price down to $250.00 from $1000, approximately. That’s huge, but they’ll be trying to unload their higher priced brand model first. The insurance companies that made deals with the manufacturers for lower priced brand name drugs, will have to restructure their deals with Big Pharm, so they don’t lose their shirt. 

In the meantime, I want you to seek the input of this organization. They are very helpful and may be able to assist you with that copay.

Healthwell Foundation

Thanks Tig. After reversing the claim from Acreedo, I found out when we submitted the Rx now to CVS, the copay dropped to $2260.96 for the full 84 days. (I am wondering, though, if that CVS $2260 copay is because of the generics.) 

Who knows if that's true after all the run-around. I will not believe it until I actually get a call from CVS asking for payment and shipping info. Even then, until it's in my hands, I don't trust anything that anyone has told me up to this point. 

Even now, my doc's office just called and said Acreedo told her that the Epclusa was sent yesterday. Hahaha. This is after the reversal and is just more BS on their part because they can't send anything out without payment and shipping info. 

I haven’t checked with my pharmacy insiders, but this is supposed to be rolled out already. Here’s an article that offers a little more information. Gilead resisted the call for a US authorized generic, but the competition was (is) fierce, between Abbvie and Merck, before Merck dropped out. There are still overseas generic options at a greater reduction in price, but that only applies to patients that pay out of pocket for the entire course of care. It also involves dealing with overseas pharmacies and providers, and customs officials. This will make access to the blockbuster drugs much more affordable. The deductible and copay costs will drop accordingly. I’ll be looking for more information regarding the roll out. 

“Beginning in January 2019, a new subsidiary, Asegua Therapeutics LLC, will sell generic versions of its hepatitis C drugs at a list price of $24,000 for the most common treatment course. These generics will get their own reimbursement code, thereby allowing companies to sell existing inventory at the prices originally intended, while also giving payers a lower-cost treatment alternative. Perhaps the biggest beneficiaries of this scheme will be managed Medicaid programs that don't currently reap benefits associated with rebates negotiated by their third-party administrators.”

Gilead Generics

Yo. Just read this last night. Generics for Epclusa and Narvoni. Gilead dropped prices down to around $24,000 beginning last month. (1/19). Anyone else hear about this? Yesterday, my Anthem concierge rep reversed the Acreedo claim because of the entire mess with Acreedo/Express/old Medical Mutual plan. We then resubmitted the Rx to CVS which quoted me $2260.69 for 84 days. Keeping fingers crossed. But as I told Tig I'll pay anything to get this behind me.  

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180924005499/en/Gilead-Subsidiary-Launch-Authorized-Generics-Epclusa