I was wondering if anyone else on pegasys has been told that in the next 5 years it is stopping being produced worldwide. At my last haematology appt, my nurse warned me of this & that I would need to consider another treatment eventually. I was told that there are newer & better drugs available for hepatitis now & therefore no longer a need for pegasys to be produced in such large quantities & therefore not financially viable anymore. Has anyone else heard anything similar, I would be interested in hearing.
Many thanks
Cath
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This is nonsense. New antiviral treatments are replacing the use of Interferon for hepatitis but the drug is used for a range of conditions so a cessation in production is most unlikely. Even if it did happen why should you make a change now?
I suspect that cost is a factor and your nurse has been fed a story to encourage patients to move to a cheaper medication. Your previous postings suggest that you've been "encouraged" to move away from Pegasys from day one.
Sounds like a frank discussion with your doctor is required. The can be no guarantees that an alternative treatment would be as effective for you.
This rumour has been going round for a while but Roche haven’t confirmed any plans to discontinue Pegasys production yet.
As others have said it is still used for conditions other than Hepatitis so there’s a good chance that either Roche or a generic drug producer will continue to supply it.
Ropeginterferon is a newer pegylated interferon, now approved in Europe but awaiting UK approval - similar to Pegasys and specifically developed for MPN treatment but much more expensive...
The manufacturers of Pegasys as a brand name might disappear. But there are already manufacturers of the same chemical under different brand names and more are likely to appear as patents expire.
Manouche has mentioned Besremi as one manufacturers replacement for Pegasys. Besremi is another form of pegylated interferon but as a new drug it is likely to be more expensive than Pegasys.
You could always suggest to your doctor/ nurse that you'd like to switch to Besremi as soon as possible (I don't think its currently approved in the UK) this might expose the real motivation for encouraging you to switch to something else now.
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