Cost of meds

[Davidthomas06]

I take Truvada and Raltegravir. I don't know why but my Doc showed me the cost of these to the NHS is £647.29 for Raltegravir and Truvards at £355.73 as I take 1 twice and 1 once a dat this amounts to £1650.35 a month. I'm staggered.

[Mancguy]

I take more then you so mine is probably higher. I would be interested in finding out what mine cost. After reading your post I googled it but couldn't find anywhere that I could search. It's amazing what they are paying to keep us alive. For me it's worth every penny as when I was first diagnosed I was told I would be dead by the time I was 40 and I'm coming upto 45. I spent 3 weeks in HDU and another couple on a normal ward. I wonder what that costed

[Mancguy]

I remember that the nhs were going to show the price of the cost to them on all our prescriptions. I think that's a great idea but not heard anything about that since. I take everything they give me and don't stock pile pills. I am very aware about it because when my dad died there was a bin bag full of prescriptions that he hadn't opened and there was nothing to do with them apart from destroy them

[Davidthomas06 in reply to Mancguy]

Well I spent a total of 3mnths in HDU, 3 months in a tropical disease ward (isolation) and the 7 months in rehab. As I like numbers and I am naturally very curious I spent some time researching the cost of my stay. Not counts meds, it worked out at £1,000081.00

[Mancguy]

It's scary how much it costs

[SeymourGoode]

It is a lot but I'm sure you contribute a lot to society (I know I do). Just be glad you live in a country where our health system is subsidised by tax and national insurance and fight any attempts to dismantle it otherwise a lot of us will just die.

[Jwfreels]

mine is 3,ooo.oo dollar amonth

[I_piglet]

Yeah it's not cheap! So lucky to live in the U.K.!

[yperoxos]

Truvada here costs 760€. I believe hospitals and national health systems don't actually buy tbe drugs at those prices. It is more complex than that...the way it works I mean. The relationship between health system and pharmaceutical companies is a complex thing.

Also, let me point out that in all European countries (and elsewhere) the treatment of hiv patients is free. There are also some countries like Germany, Greece etc. where the actual patients also receive a disability benefit. I don't know if that's the case in the UK. I know for example that Denmark is one of the countries that doesn't give that...but it's good money.

[Trotski]

Should you ever wonder why there is no cure, there is your answer.

[Positive80]

To cure it means pharmaceutical companies won't gain billions.

[Rob199025]

I wonder what happens in America surly health insurance would not pay for that?

[codyodie in reply to Rob199025]

Most health insurance in the U.S.does pay for HIV medications.

[bad-monkey]

my insurance pays for most of mine but I luckily have co-pay cards from the pharm companies that covers the rest. Otherwise it would run about $3500 a month at least

[Ydontujustdie]

If you take part in a trial the drug company pays for all of your treatment including the drugs supplied by other companies. I'm not sure if it is paid just until the end of the trial because it used to be until the patient reached the "clinical endpoint" or death as everyone else would describe it. As the prognosis at the time was around 2 years if you were lucky this seemed reasonable. Also the trial drugs themselves were so toxic they were likely to make your pancreas leap out of your mouth at any time and hurry things along. I'm not sure if my meds are still being given paid for by Bristol Myers who are now just a part of a huge merged company which happened when the researchers stopped working in secret to find A cure and started sharing their work on newsgroups with researchers at other companies. This was going on at the start of the computer age when only nerds could use Windows 3.1 and managers didn't have a clue what was going on til it was too late. This is how combo therapy came about. (There was also a bit of loved up secret sharing when the statisticians had to admit that the new drug ecstasy was safer than asprin and even top consultants were experimenting with it which is why medical staff often have lots of tattoos and piercings. Before that they were all in corduroy jacket with leather elbows and had wild hair and eyebrows with dandruff.

anyway. If you ask for your meds to be sent to you through a distributor there is no VAT paid on them which saves your hospital or trust quite a few bob over the years.