Put your prices and any associated info here

I paid 72,408 Bangladesh taka for 12 weeks supply of Twinvir (generic harvoni) from Incepta in Bangladesh earlier this week. You can convert that to pounds sterling or US dollars on xe currency calculator site. However, when weighing up treatment options I imagine most people will be interested in the total cost of the package, which include for example travel costs to Bangladesh. I would give details of my return airfare from UK to Bangladesh, and other costs like hotel for overnight stay but not sure what forum rules permit. Suffice to say, if travelling from the UK I think you can at least double that figure plus a bit more when visa, hotel, insurance and transport costs are included. Nevertheless, I don't begrudge a penny of it. I think it money very well spent in return for a 90% plus chance of achieving SVR12, and also when compared with the price of the equivalent drug here in UK

i flew from Chiang Mai to Bangladesh for about 425 USD, round trip.
I chose a high end hotel because of my security concerns... so for a 1 night stay it was 225 USD plus meals
Airport pick-up 18 USD
Visa on Arrival - 51 USD
Private car with additional security to go to Incepta - 30 USD
Return to airport - 18 USD

24 week course of Twinvir - 1860

add it all up... about 2700 USD...door to door
Door to door time frame: left CM at 7am on Saturday, was back in CM 8pm Sunday.

hope that helps someone

Please keep visiting here Parvez, you will help a lot of people.

Just to elaborate on my previous post about travelling to Bangladesh to buy Twinvir (generic harvoni), I think my total cost, including the med's themselves, travel and hotel etc, was about £1570, (about US$2400 assuming an approximate exchange rate of about $1.50 dollar to the pound although this varies day-to-day).

This cost was for 12 weeks supply of Twinvir, not 24 like Zippy, which I think is why my cost is a bit lower than his even though I had a longer journey.

Specific breakdown:
Return flight London Gatwick to Bangladesh £550
Travel home to Gatwick and back £80
Travel insurance £30
Hotel in Dhaka 1 night  £145 (hotels in Dhaka are a bit expensive)
Twinvir 12 wks           £620
Airport pick up and drop off, $18 each way,  say, £25
Transport by hotel-arranged taxi to Incepta and back £30
Miscellaneous - e.g. unlocked phone and Bangladesh SIM card, visa on arrival $51 (say £34), travel socket adaptor and meals   £90

Total £1570

In terms of timescale, my flight left Gatwick at 9.40am on Saturday and I arrived back in Gatwick at 6.40am on Tuesday. So away 3 days with one night stay in Dhaka.

Parvez and Asif at Incepta were very helpful and efficient - it was a pleasure to do business with them. I'm very grateful to them and to Incepta for making this pioneering treatment available at an affordable price

Hi Jolie, thanks for that info– that's a good price you got.

However, for me, even taking into account the price, travelling abroad to get the med's was overall the better option.

Different treatment options will appeal to different people according to their personal inclinations and circumstances. Price is certainly a factor, but it is not the only one. In case it is of interest to you, or anyone else, I elaborate below why I chose to go to Bangladesh.

First, although you were not to know this, we are not quite comparing like with like here. I should have pointed that I am Geno 1a (with high viral load). I believe (although don't quote me, I'm not a doctor) that for Geno 1a the best treatment combination is Sofosbuvir and Ledipasvir. According to current info from Dr Freeman on his Hep C site:“If you approach a supplier like Beijing Mesochem you will find their prices are currently as shown as .. for 12 weeks treatment: Sofosbuvir+Ledipasvir $1980 USD Sofosbuvir+Daclatasvir $1105 USD.”

So even if, like you, I had gone to Mesochem, the Sofosbuvir + Ledopasvir combination that I need is more expensive than the Sofosbuvir + Daclatasvir combination that you need, and that you bought. For 12 weeks supply of Sofosbuvir+Ledipasvir combination I would have paid Mesochem $1980 USD (say £1320) which means that, adding in the bits and pieces you mention for compounding the APIs, I would have paid in total £1370. Now this is £200 less than the £1570 I paid to go to Bangladesh to buy Twinvir (which is Sofosbuvir+Ledipasvir) but it means the bulk of the price difference between what you paid and what I paid is, I believe, attributable to the difference in the med's we each bought, and not to the fact that I went abroad whereas you had the med's mailed to you.

As to this additional price I paid for travelling to BD rather than, for example, using Mesochem to mail the APIs to me, this was for me well justified by a number of other factors. First, the fact that the med's are ready to take and do not need to be compounded. I am glad my treatment does not depend on the prospect of learning this skill, and having to buy the special equipment required. Probably I could have learnt it if I had to do; but I'm not great at DIY and I'm glad I didn't have to.

Second, when I researched Mesochem there seemed to be some hoops you have to jump through to get the med's from them. For example, Alsdad, on this site, says of dealing with Mesochem: “...you have to provide a letter from a pharmacist confirming that they will encapsulate the API for you.” If this is still true, this alone would have stopped me buying from Mesochem - there's no way I could have got such a letter. Further I checked out another forum devoted to ways of accessing generic interferon-free hep c treatments, and on that forum there were numerous references to the need to tell Mesochem that you required the med's for research purposes. For example, a poster on that other forum says (and I hope I break no forum rules in quoting from another site) that Mesochem are “..only supposed to be shipping to other drug manufacturers and to researchers”. Now, if this is true, and I have no idea whether it is or not, then it put me off.

Third, the other thing that would have worried me about having the med's mailed to me is the possibility of a potential delay in having the med's delivered. Now very fortunately this doesn't appear to have happened to you, Jolie, because you tell us that your med's either were or are due to be (you do not make clear which) delivered promptly within an average 4 -5 days. But all I can say is that I have seen posts from a poster on another forum who complains of delays in delivery of their dac, mentioning a delay of 3 weeks, a lot longer than 4-5 average days you cite. Presumably that other poster used a supplier different from the ones you did. But by travelling to BD to collect the med's, having previously booked the med's, I was glad to avoid any angst of waiting at home - uncertain when the med's would arrive. Also, of course I had the pleasure of seeing another country which I had not previously visited, albeit briefly.

Thanks for the further explanations thurl. Just to address a few points:

Killthedragon and fixhepc are, to my knowledge, the only two online English lenguage forums where HCV generic DAAs and the obtaining of them can be discussed freely and withot censorship. Both forums have the same ideals, and we work together - I'm a moderator on fixhepc. Spreading information is absolutely crucial to the philosophy, and if that means linking to/quoting from other forums, so be it.

Mesochem and Rachel are in the business of making money, they really want to sell their product. But they don't want any nasty publicity, so it's necessary to play a little charade in order to give them some 'ass cover'. "thurl's Compounding Pharmacy Inc." on a nice letterhead with a few 'credentials' would have worked fine. You play the charade and you get the meds.

I suspect the 3 weeks delivery you've seen is from Dr Freeman's Buyers Club (which is for deliveries inside Australia). They buy in bulk from Mesochem, test, encapsulate and send out.

Anyway, you did it your way and got your meds quickly. And you shared your info. Great stuff! Everyone's a winner!