When New Treatment available in Australia

[johnny679]

Hi does anybody know when Boceprevir and telaprevir will be available in Australia ? , I was told by my doctor should by end of this year but could be next year he also said .

[johnny679]

Its very good your getting the triple , you have a great chance to get rid of this .
suprised a country like australia has these delays as australia is usually very fast . But like willbb said earlier our system is publicly funded and goverment will try and delay as long as they can .

[BoceprevirGal]

Johnny, the same exact thing happened to me, in October- I had this blood test, a FibroSure test, and the Research Doctor just casually told me this put me at stage 4 cirrhosis, and I was devastated!! Ran and got the biopsy, and it showed stage 2...but I had low platelettes as well (120 or 120,000, depending on test read....150 on up is normal range)...so I RAN and am getting the triple treatment~
   Today, at our clinic, here in California, we actually had a Doctor, from Australia (who specialized in Addiction Medicine) come, to sit in, and observe our support group. Is their any research studies available, in Oz, cuz these tend to come out before the protease Inhibitors get approval...but keep in mind,, that the protease Inhibitors ONLY work, with Interferon and Ribaviron, as of now...so If a researcher tries to give you one, with-out the others, this could give you a tolerance to the new meds..not good!

[johnny679]

Hi yeah its difficult to get into these programs especially for me as I have hemophillia b . I will keep trying to get into some sort of trial . I will visit doctor end of april and see what my step will be .

[johnny679]

Yeah I remember you gave me advice which I appreciated  when I got that false fibroscan reading  , really scared me as my fibroscan result was a score of 16 anyway luckily my biopsy confirmed I was stage 2 . I will visit the Doctor end of month and see what he says .

[almawe]

Think there is an early access program at the Alfred in Melbourne

[willbb]

Possibly follow up with your doctor and go over this IL28B test. It wouldn't be the first time we heard here a doctor making a mistake interpreting a test

Will

[willbb]

You must have had the IL28B gene marker test. Given the doctor predicted a 20% chance on PEG/Riba I would imagine you have the TT allele from what he is saying That precludes not being very sensitive to the Interferon ..hence the low percentage .

I remember your fiasco with the fibroscan and was a good thing you followed up with the biopsy.

Well...I don't know from the article I posted if that means the wide open approval process is a short term reality for you folks there or maybe a longer wait,however at St.2 like you have mentioned there should be some time for you to wait.

Best to you ..hope it all works out

Will

[johnny679]

Hi willbb thank you for your reply I really appreciate it . Thats bad news I really want to start treatment , I had a genotype and I forget the name of the test its a new test in australia which tells you if you will be likely to be successful with the
current peg & rib standrad treatment , my doctor says I have a 20 % chance of success with current treatment . I had a biopsy and I stage 2 I look after myself no alcohol blah blah blah but I know that I could progress to stage 3 or 4 in 3 years or less or 10 years or 20 years so I am worried .  I had a fibroscan which showed I was stage 4 which really scared me but luckily it was wrong I was stage 2 with my biopsy but since then it is on my mind so much more as I think maybe the false fibroscan ready was a sign for me to get this show on the road and get try and get rid of this . Thanks again Will

[willbb]

Hi Johnny...I know you posted this about a week ago,however I just saw this today .
Thought I would post it for you and anyone else that may be in Australia in case you were not yet aware of what is going  with the approval process there.
It seems your regulatory body is having issues with both INCI and VIc.

My guess is it is a cost factor ,if in fact you folks have a publicly funded system.(my apologies if I am mistaken on that)

Best to you...
Will

http://hepatitiscnewdrugs.blogspot.ca/2012/03/side-effect-fears-stall-hepatitis-c.html

However PBS listing has remained a hurdle for both drugs: the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee rejected telaprevir at its November meeting, having previously rejected boceprevir. The PBAC has just reviewed boceprevir for a second time, but is now understood to have deferred the decision.

[crigger]

Wish I could help