Hacker News Reader

Comment by ggm | Hacker News Reader

To the plus side, its cheap. So, absent drug companies motivations to make cheap drugs (low) it is affordable at scale, and if it turned out to be useful e.g. early in the stage of the disease, this might be very good for wild infections. Or, maybe it points to drugs which are safer, equally cheap, and able to be made with less side effects.

(see rule one: this is not medical advice)

View on HN

Cheapish - as I recall about $300 for 90-day supply of generic hydroxychloroquine if paying cash in US. I mean, not cancer drug spends but if you are on it for life it’s an annoying annual expense.

US drug prices are pretty crazy. A random search in an internet pharmacy shows 100 tablets of 200mg hydroxychloroquine is like 30€ in Germany.

Quinine course used to cost around 1.5 RMBs in 1998.

Managed to catch malaria in Hebei out of all places, during my first trips to China with my father.

Indeed. Another example: https://twitter.com/jawj/status/1199026735980990465

I believe its around $30 in the US at Ralphs or Costco

It is, but in recent years it was much higher because of "shortages" (actually just lack of competition after one of the main suppliers got busted by USDA for poor quality control).

For Kenya, it works out as 0.3 USD/tablet for HCQS

Right, the only medication I sometimes bring from the US now is acetaminophen/paracetamol because it's the only one I've found that's much cheaper there. The rest are probably cheaper in Germany so I would just go there if I needed them.

For regulatory reasons, US drug list prices are completely detached from the actual price you end up paying (assuming you do a bit of research). See e.g. https://www.goodrx.com/hydroxychloroquine ($20 for 60x200mg)

I checked into this recently because a family member takes it for lupus. It's 10x to 30x more expensive in the US than everywhere else in the world.

Well, that reflects inflated American prices. In India, it is about 270 INR for 90x 200mg, or about $3.65. Non-generic hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil) is about 3 times the price.

There are certain websites which will ship a 90-day supply for $10 plus change from India, paid with bitcoin. Just sayin'.

It has come down a lot in the past year actually. You can get a 30 day supply for an adult for like $30 for the generic brand without insurance if you shop around. I take it everyday, I don't have any side effects from it but do have to get my eyes checked annually with an expensive test.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com