Has anyone gone abroad for Ocrelizumab? Experience?

[ClaudiaC]

I have had MS for 25 years and the last two years it has turned progressive. My doctor feels that I should be on Ocrelizumab until Rituxan comes on the market My insurance company does not want to cover it...

So, if I don't want to wait, I could go abroad to buy it out of pocket. (In other words, take the old, out of patent mouse version that is made generically in India, until Roche gets their now human cell version passed and my insurance company has to cover it.)

I have been on Tysabri for 1.5 years and am considering traveling to India to be infused with Ocrelizumab which is generic there now for substantially less cost than in the US from a major pharmacy. Has anyone else out there done this? Did you go, get an (Indian) prescription, carry the medicine back on a plane and have it privately infused here in the US or did you stay there two weeks (some vacation!) and have it infused there?

[Marco]

Rituximab (Rituxan) has been on the market a long time. Ocrelizumab is in development and is closely related to Rituximab, but is humanized. Has your doctor appealed the decision with the insurance company? If not, have your doctor fight for you. Rituximab is a much cheaper alternative than many of our medications.

I have never traveled for healthcare reasons and generally shun the notion. It's hard to know who to trust overseas and many people have been harmed in the process. There are success stories, but it is hit or miss so please do your homework ahead of time.

[jreagan70]

Did you go, get an (Indian) prescription, carry the medicine back on a plane and have it privately infused here in the US

I don't know how many people might have been able to pull that off because it's illegal.

Even though the drug is generic and legal outside the US, drugs have to be FDA approved and labeled for use in the US (even if they're exactly the same drug as the US version) to be legal here. An Indian drug wouldn't be legal. Customs isn't likely to meddle with critical medications like insulin and heart medications, but rituximab -- generic or brand -- doesn't fit that category. And a foreign prescription doesn't matter if the drug is illegal. If customs confiscates it, you'll be out all of the money you spent.

So assuming that the Indian drug would make it through customs, a person would have to find a pharmacist willing to constitute an illegal drug and a physician who would be willing to infuse it or write an order to have it infused, knowing that it's illegal.

In your case that would mean you would have to find a physician who would be willing to risk his or her medical license to infuse you with a drug that hasn't been shown to work particularly well in progressive forms of MS anyway.

Legalities aside, the question comes up about how good a generic version might be considering that several pharmaceutical companies abandoned their attempts to produce a biosimilar version. The other important question involves how carefully and cleanly made the drug can be in a country with lax health laws.

You might not have any trouble at all, but it would take only one person to blow the whistle on it to make several people sorry they got involved, and only one contaminated dose to make you sorry you tried it.

[palmtree]

I would seem a lot simpler to have it infused in India. They're laws aren't as rigid as the US but that doesn't mean the healthcare is of poorer quality.

If you are concerned about the IV line you could get a PIC line put in before you go so there will be no needles.

I wish I had some experience to pass on to you. Whatever you decide I hope it goes well and kicks this monster in the rear end.

[JerryD]

All of the responses have called in question the legality of your situation. I think that traveling to India for an infusion of a drug that has not been FDA approved calls in question the safety of the procedure and the drug itself. Do you really think that this endeavor is worth the chances you are proposing? Risk/ Benefit ratio? Think about this long and hard ! As always, Good luck !