Community Led Buyers Club to Create Access to Generic DAA medicines

Sindi Putri, Sally Nita

Availability of HCV medicines in Indonesia still Pegylated Interferon/Ribavirin with the high price, bad side effect and low efficacy. In other side, there're new drugs from DAA to treat Hepatitis C and its available in affordable prices for generic, friendly side effect and effective but still not available in Indonesia.

The estimation number of people who infected with Hepatitis C virus (HCV) in Indonesia are three millions people and every year there are 150 thousand people died because of this disease. There is a need the availability of DAA medicines in Indonesia and most of the patients not aware of these drugs. Treatment literacy about new DAA medicines among doctor considered low.

Indonesia AIDS Coalition (IAC) make initiative called Indonesia Buyers Club, it is considered because the fact that HCV patients need the DAA medicines. This practice working collaboration with Indian movement to assist IAC create access to DAA medicines for the patients. Using Facebook Group as communication and information space related the new DAA medicines. Media mass also became a space to spread out about the Indonesia Buyers Club to the other patients who needed the medicines.

Indonesia Buyers Club already help almost a hundred HCV patients to get the DAA medicines, nearly half achieved SVR 12. The number of doctors who aware of the new DAA medicines also increasing, not in Jakarta only but also in other cities in Indonesia. They could give the prescription and monitoring while the patients on treatment. There are now 669 member in Facebook group who are access and using this group to get information and sharing experiences among the patients. Indonesia Buyers Club became lesson learned for other patient group to using the paralel importation of drugs to open the access on affordable medicines.