19th October 2015
Well it’s Spring and the rye grass fields around my house are releasing their unending clouds of pollen... hayfever time for the next 6 weeks. Again I am thankful for modern chemistry and the invention of the antihistamine. Fortunately the inventors antihistamines do no charge $1,000 per pill.
Because about 50% of the people with Hep C have genotype 1 there are a lot of folk waiting for generic Harvoni to come. Some have already used Mesochem APIs to create their own generic Harvoni equivalent and others have used Sofosbuvir combined with Daclatasvir or Simeprevir to as a treatment for their Hepatitis C.
In the meantime, while we have been fretting about the release of generic Harvoni in India two pharaceutical companies have begun production using Chinese APIs.
Incepta is making Twinvir and Beximco is selling Lesovir-C.
These are both available now, well actually both companies have now sold out of stock and the next batch should be ready around the 24th of October.
Twinvir has been tested and is an exact copy of Harvoni but I am not aware of any tests on Lesovir-C.
My friends in India are at this moment working to secure reliable supply and shipping structures from Bangladesh and this will be done properly so that supply and quality is certain. These systems should be in place by the first week in November.
Meanwhile the advent of these two generic Harvoni drugs from Bangladesh has changed the balance of things in India and, more or less, ensured that licensed generic Harvoni will be released in India by early December.
Whilst there seem to be no quality issues with the Bangladesh products I know a lot of people will prefer to purchase their generic Harvoni from a Gilead licensed manufacturer.
The prices are not definite yet but it looks like a price of around US$1,500 is the likely cost for generic Harvoni from either country, including shipping and other costs.
Generic Daclatasvir is also now available from Bangladesh from Beacon Industries. The cost of this, including shipping is approximately US$500 for 84 tablets. This has also been tested and found to be identical to BMS Daclatasvir.