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Author Topic: I might be alive because of DAA's  (Read 11595 times)

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Offline Luna7

  • Member
  • Posts: 179
I might be alive because of DAA's
« on: October 05, 2016, 01:48:15 pm »
Today was my mothers birthday, but she's not here anymore because she died from Hepatitis C that turned into liver cancer a few years back.

I don't know what her genotype was, but since I had genotype 3 that supposedly progresses more easily into fatty liver I can't help but think it was likely I would have developed liver cancer too.

I still maintain, however, that Big Pharma sucks.
Logged
Between F2 & F3
Alt & Ast nearly 100
Viral load over 8 million
Gt 3a

Treated 12 weeks with Sovaldi & Daklinza, start date mid-April 2016
Undetected at 4 weeks into treatment
Alt & Ast  normal
Treatment completed July 14
Most likely will be undetected at 12 weeks (mid October 2016) as symptoms are gone

Offline Jazz

  • Member
  • Posts: 40
Re: I might be alive because of DAA's
« Reply #1 on: October 06, 2016, 07:02:57 am »
Hi Luna, I'm sorry for the loss of your mother. HCV is an insidious disease and I hope we have been spared it's ravages now that we have achieved SVR.

Big Pharma? I won't even take a paracetamol. Many of their products are superfluous, they influence government policy and alter diagnostic parameters etc to create markets for many dubious products. i believe Donald Rumsfeld is on the board of Gilead - that says it all really...

My heartfelt condolences to you on this day.

Peace and love,
Jazz
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HCV 3a. F2-3. Sovaldi/Riba 24 wk Tx. 24 weeks SVR

Offline andrew j

  • Member
  • Posts: 477
Re: I might be alive because of DAA's
« Reply #2 on: October 06, 2016, 05:42:39 pm »
My thoughts and prayers are with you, too, Luna.

Big Pharma?

They are a business, so will attempt to extract the highest price - pure and simple.
The counter-force, I guess, is competition, that will eventually drive prices down.
Unfortunately, and in reln. to illnesses like Hep C - the effect is to put a price on human life.

... But there are lots of good and caring people out there trying to make things better.
... Trying to help people get the meds they need.

I don't know ...

Peace and love (also),
Andrew. 
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Offline Luna7

  • Member
  • Posts: 179
Re: I might be alive because of DAA's
« Reply #3 on: October 06, 2016, 06:11:20 pm »
Quote from: Jazz on October 06, 2016, 07:02:57 am
Hi Luna, I'm sorry for the loss of your mother. HCV is an insidious disease and I hope we have been spared it's ravages now that we have achieved SVR.

Big Pharma? I won't even take a paracetamol. Many of their products are superfluous, they influence government policy and alter diagnostic parameters etc to create markets for many dubious products. i believe Donald Rumsfeld is on the board of Gilead - that says it all really...

My heartfelt condolences to you on this day.

Peace and love,
Jazz

Thanks Jazz...:)

Haha didn't know Rumsfeld is on the board of Gilead...that does say it all.
Such a corrupt system...what can we do? I actually feel a little guilty having participated in it, yet it cured me.
Crazymaking :(  I might need serious psychological meds now...:)
Logged
Between F2 & F3
Alt & Ast nearly 100
Viral load over 8 million
Gt 3a

Treated 12 weeks with Sovaldi & Daklinza, start date mid-April 2016
Undetected at 4 weeks into treatment
Alt & Ast  normal
Treatment completed July 14
Most likely will be undetected at 12 weeks (mid October 2016) as symptoms are gone

Offline Luna7

  • Member
  • Posts: 179
Re: I might be alive because of DAA's
« Reply #4 on: October 06, 2016, 06:15:03 pm »
Quote from: andrew j on October 06, 2016, 05:42:39 pm
My thoughts and prayers are with you, too, Luna.

Big Pharma?

They are a business, so will attempt to extract the highest price - pure and simple.
The counter-force, I guess, is competition, that will eventually drive prices down.
Unfortunately, and in reln. to illnesses like Hep C - the effect is to put a price on human life.

... But there are lots of good and caring people out there trying to make things better.
... Trying to help people get the meds they need.

I don't know ...

Peace and love (also),
Andrew.

Thanks Andrew :)

Yes there are lots of people fighting the good fight.
How did we get to this point though, where money controls too much?
I was reading about how the system is too large in modern society, each part separate from the other, and how it's too easy to view other parts in the abstract and like a machine. I don't know, sounds good :)
Logged
Between F2 & F3
Alt & Ast nearly 100
Viral load over 8 million
Gt 3a

Treated 12 weeks with Sovaldi & Daklinza, start date mid-April 2016
Undetected at 4 weeks into treatment
Alt & Ast  normal
Treatment completed July 14
Most likely will be undetected at 12 weeks (mid October 2016) as symptoms are gone

Offline Jazz

  • Member
  • Posts: 40
Re: I might be alive because of DAA's
« Reply #5 on: October 06, 2016, 10:27:45 pm »
I echo your sentiment Andrew, of course, regarding good people.

Big pharma's pricing is not what I was speaking to, rather their business model of creating markets for their product. Before I started hearing professors of medicine, etc speak out about big pharma's not so benevolent side, I assumed that big Pharma were providing need to an existing market, such as providing a cure to the deadly Hep C epidemic. However, I learnt, that their business model also involved creating markets in mental health, cardiological health etc. I shall provide a link or two when I have a moment in my day. Suffice to say, drugs are potential game changers to ppl's health, they can save you or destroy you - legal or illegal.

For the moment I recommend a book called 'Dying for a cure' by Rebecca Bedoes. It pertains to mental health, but documents how big Pharma is a very destructive and devious force in our society, as regards mental health.

Please don't think me cynical, rather it is the industry and its business model, which is outrageously cynical.

More peace and love :)
Jazz
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HCV 3a. F2-3. Sovaldi/Riba 24 wk Tx. 24 weeks SVR

Offline Jazz

  • Member
  • Posts: 40
Re: I might be alive because of DAA's
« Reply #6 on: October 07, 2016, 04:59:01 am »
The business model I speak of, has a name, 'disease mongering'. Here are 2 links.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1122833/

https://www.drugwatch.com/2012/01/22/disease-mongering-and-drug-marketing/

Wiki has a page too.

I'm grateful for this cure, but I've had ppl close to me suffer from 'disease mongering', so I'm very wary and do my research whenever a doctor suggests medication to my family and friends for big and small issues.
Logged
HCV 3a. F2-3. Sovaldi/Riba 24 wk Tx. 24 weeks SVR

Offline MommaT

  • Member
  • Posts: 65
  • Tomorrow Is a New Day
Re: I might be alive because of DAA's
« Reply #7 on: October 07, 2016, 05:49:03 am »
Hello All-
I too am very upset with Big Pharma! -Every time I would research new Hep C drugs I would get shifted to prospectus for shareholders and the profit margin. Now seeing it on that end touting it as an investment opportunity, it was so cold!  You would never think it was based on a disease. Playing with peoples lives! Go look at any new drug and you will see it is out of control. Someone has to put a stop to this! I did get Epclusa through my insurance but, I feel TERRIBLE! I was about to get the generic from India for $750.00. I feel like I lined the pockets of the Big Pharma Machine.
Logged
62 year old Female
Treatment Naive
Genotype 2b
2001 Dx Donated blood after 9/11
2002 Biopsy F1
2016 Fibroscan 15 F4
Comp Cirrhosis Stage 1
pretreatment VL 1,722.660 mil
platelets 122 low
alpha 2 Macroglobulins 647
Apolipoprotein A-1 214
GGT 67 high
AFP Serum Tumor Marker 11.4
ALT 563 AST 332
2016 Sept 16 Epclusa started
4 wk VL <15 HCV Detecte
ALT 19 AST 18
8 wk VL HCV Undetected!
12/8/16 EOT Yipee!
12 wk VL HCV Undetected
SVR 12
SVR  24  10/5/2018 HCV Undetected   12/10/18 DETECTED????????

Offline Jazz

  • Member
  • Posts: 40
Re: I might be alive because of DAA's
« Reply #8 on: October 07, 2016, 06:17:17 am »
hi Momma, I don't know much about Epclusa. I hope you feel better soon. I think all we can do is accept the things that work for us and reject the things that don't, but definitely resist the railroading/propaganda that is a part of disease mongering. Research is the key.


[/quote] I was reading about how the system is too large in modern society, each part separate from the other, and how it's too easy to view other parts in the abstract and like a machine. I don't know, sounds good :)
[/quote]

Luna, we have to work with what is available, and there is a lot available to us still. I think what u talk about in general is alienation, and that's why it's key to reach out, communicate, build community, both local and global, forums like this, where we all have shared experience. Reach out to people, make cyber friends (they used to call them pen pals). We don't just need a village to raise a child, we need community to nurture all of us.

Peace and love to us all
Jazz
Logged
HCV 3a. F2-3. Sovaldi/Riba 24 wk Tx. 24 weeks SVR

Offline andrew j

  • Member
  • Posts: 477
Re: I might be alive because of DAA's
« Reply #9 on: October 07, 2016, 06:38:20 pm »
Nice one, Jazz.

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Offline Lynn K

  • Global Moderator
  • Member
  • Posts: 4,546
  • Get tested, get treated, get cured, fight Hep c!
Re: I might be alive because of DAA's
« Reply #10 on: October 07, 2016, 11:14:45 pm »
Found this on Wikipedia, apparently Rumsfeld was appointed chairman of the board of Gilead Sciences from 1997 to 2001 but has not been out of Gilead since then.

"In January 1997, Donald Rumsfeld, a Board member since 1988, was appointed Chairman of the company.[18] He stood down from the Board in January 2001 when appointed United States Secretary of Defense at the start of George W. Bush's first term as President. Federal disclosure forms indicate that Rumsfeld owned between US$5 million and US$25 million in Gilead stock. The rise in Gilead's share prices from US$35 to US$57 per share will have added between US$2.5 million to US$15.5 million to Rumsfeld's net worth."
Logged
Genotype 1a
1978 contracted, 1990 Dx
1995 Intron A failed
2001 Interferon Riba null response
2003 Pegintron Riba trial med null response
2008 F4 Cirrhosis Bx
2014 12 week Sov/Oly relapse
10/14 fibroscan 27 PLT 96
2014 24 weeks Harvoni 15 weeks Riba
5/4/15 EOT not detected, ALT 21, AST 20
4 week post not detected, ALT 26, AST 28
12 week post NOT DETECTED (07/27/15)
ALT 29, AST 27 PLT 92
24 week post NOT DETECTED! (10/19/15)
44 weeks (3/11/16)  fibroscan 33, PLT 111, HCV NOT DETECTED!
I AM FREE!

Offline AllShookUp

  • Member
  • Posts: 30
  • "itching like a man on a fuzzy tree" - Not anymore
Re: I might be alive because of DAA's
« Reply #11 on: October 08, 2016, 12:34:26 am »
I was taught that "If you can't say something nice about a person, don't say anything at all".
Now we have Google available to do the dirty work. Search "Rumsfeld aspartame".
Logged
Male - BabyBoomer
1995 - diagnosed HCV
2002 - Peg + Riba - quit after 5 weeks severe anemia
2015 Nov -start 12 weeks Harvoni +Riba + Procrit
Gen 1b - VL 1,500,000 -ALT93-AST143
Comp cirrhosis - enlarged spleen - platelets 35
Week 5 of Tx - HCV undetected - ALT/AST normal
End Week 12 of Tx - HCV UD - ALT/AST normal
Jan. 25, 2016 EOT
April 4, 2016 - SVR10 UD - ALT/AST normal
May 5, 2016 - SVR14 UD - ALT/AST normal
Aug 5, 2016 - SVR28 UD - ALT/AST normal

Offline Luna7

  • Member
  • Posts: 179
Re: I might be alive because of DAA's
« Reply #12 on: October 12, 2016, 12:11:45 pm »
Quote from: Jazz on October 07, 2016, 04:59:01 am
The business model I speak of, has a name, 'disease mongering'. Here are 2 links.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1122833/

https://www.drugwatch.com/2012/01/22/disease-mongering-and-drug-marketing/

Wiki has a page too.

I'm grateful for this cure, but I've had ppl close to me suffer from 'disease mongering', so I'm very wary and do my research whenever a doctor suggests medication to my family and friends for big and small issues.

Great links!
And not only do they invent diseases to market to, I believe Big Pharma neglects cures they can't make money from. I was reading about how they won't even include a substance in a trial if it can't be patented. So they try to cure everything from some drug they hope to develop when other cures or helpful substances are available right now.
Logged
Between F2 & F3
Alt & Ast nearly 100
Viral load over 8 million
Gt 3a

Treated 12 weeks with Sovaldi & Daklinza, start date mid-April 2016
Undetected at 4 weeks into treatment
Alt & Ast  normal
Treatment completed July 14
Most likely will be undetected at 12 weeks (mid October 2016) as symptoms are gone
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