19th of May 9.30 a.m.
Sorry to say that I am still waiting. I have had breakfast and gone through my emails, read the newspaper and sent my driver off to do his normal customer picking up things because I do not think I will need him until after 11 this morning. Most businesses here do not start until about 10 a.m. I guess it gives folk time to enjoy the cooler part of the day. It will be above 40C again today.

So I do not expect to get delivery of my medication until around 11 this morning.

Paranoia?
I’ve had a few emails from folk who are worried that by me publishing what I am doing in India that I may be attracting the attention of GILEAD who might not want concise information about how to go about getting the MUCH cheaper sofosbuvir in India made readily available.

And I admit to having had similar thoughts from the first day that I began to publish this diary. We all know how much big multi-nationals love their profits and we have all heard stories about the lengths to which they will go to either increase or preserve those profits. The 2005 film The Constant Gardener is based on a true story on exactly that theme. In The Constant Gardener Big Pharma actually murders people who threaten its profit base in Africa. Haha... I’m certainly not saying that would be on the cards for me but I do wonder about what strings might be pulled, either in India or Australia, to make things difficult for me.

Anyway, in response to the concerns of folk who have written to me about this issue, I just say that I am aware of that risk and proceed forward anyway. I hope that this diary, combined with the work of lots of other good people around the world, will add to the pressure on GILEAD to make its products more accessible, more affordable, to the people who suffer from this terrible and debilitating disease.

Profits
I do not have a problem with pharmaceutical companies making good profits, rewarding their investors and being rewarded for their research work, however the profit does not need to be an obscene profit and it does not have to be at the expense of tens of millions of people whose suffering could be relieved by fair prices. Please do make a profit... a good profit and continue the amazing research and development you are doing... but be fair, please be fair.

Remember Dr. Alexander Fleming, who invented penicillin, by far the most important drug every made. Flemming did NOT apply for a patent so that his momentous discovery would be freely available to everyone on Earth. Perhaps the folk who run Big Pharma could learn from that? Nearly 100 years after its invention Companies still make a profit manufacturing penicillin but there is no monopoly on it so prices are fair.

This entry was originally published on My Hep C Diary. Reprinted with permission.