In the movie “Dallas Buyers Club” the main character, Ron Woodroof, contracts HIV/AIDs and starts getting drugs from an organization that imports medicine from Mexico. Similarly, many London patients are finding themselves frustrated by waiting months and even years for newly approved medicine for diseases like cancer, chronic migraine, and multiple sclerosis. Some of these patients are now utilizing an online broker that it claims is similar to the “Dallas Buyers Club.”
This new ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ is based in Amsterdam, and is registered with the Dutch Ministry of Health as a medicines intermediary. It has customers from more than 70 countries and has sold medicine to more than 3,000 patients so far as of October 2018. They now have new medicines for cancer treatment that are available in the US but not many other places. They also carry and sell Ocrevus, a new drug for multiple sclerosis.
The founder of this group is Sjaak Vink. Vink declares that his business is helping patients who might have to wait for a long time to get the medicine they need. He was first inspired to start his business after witnessing major delays for a Keytruda, a cancer immunotherapy.
To get the medicine, patients have to have a prescription from a doctor saying that the medicine is strictly for personal use and they can easily order the medicine online. This process is legal currently, although regulators are eager to warn potential clients of the organization that there is a risk from using this service.
Patients from Australia, the Middle East, Asia, and European markets all utilize this organization. So far, there are not as many US customers because the US tends to give quicker approvals for prescription medicines.
Is this ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ organization dangerous for desperate patients, or is it doing what its founder says and filling a gap in the market for new drugs for cancer, migraine, and multiple sclerosis? Read the original article here.
