Help Cancer Patients Access Medications!

We have a bit of good news today.  The medication for adrenocortical cancer patients, mitotane, is finally being made in Russia.  In early fall it should become available to many patients who need it.  Although we don't know yet if it will be affordable, the patients will no longer have to wait up to a month to receive it from abroad.

There are many other medications, aside from mitotane, which are difficult to access for cancer patients.  One such medication is defibrotide, used to treat veno-occlusive disease of the liver of people having had a bone marrow transplant.   This is a rare complication that arises in approximately 2% of bone marrow transplant recipients.  However, when it does it is highly lethal.  Prompt treatment is required to save a patient, within the hours of the initial symptoms. There is usually no time to raise funds for this medicine, which is very costly - up to $50,000 for the course of treatment.  Unfortunately, in Russia it is often difficult to achieve.  The only way to improve survival rate for this complication is to have a supply of this medication on hand.

Our goal is to help the hospitals of St. Petersburg treating patients after bone marrow transplants to access this medication as necessary.  We will be working with our partner in St. Petersburg, Advita fund, to raise the funds and purchase this medication in the most cost-effective way.  We hope you can help us achieve this goal.  One of the best ways to support us is a monthly recurring donation.  It's an  easy and convenient way to help! 

Thanks again for your support!

As relations between Russia and the West deteriorate, most of the impact is borne by the private citizens.  Recently, access to modern medications, already inadequate, has become threatened by further restrictions and bans. 

In April the U.S. Treasury announced new sanctions against oligarchs and senior officials from Russia.  In response, Russian Duma began consideration of a bill that proposes a plethora of measures, including a ban on the imports of U.S.-made medications, which account for some 10% of the Russian pharmaceutical market and are used for treatment of leukemia and other forms of cancer, HIV, Hepatitis C, and many other conditions.

While there has been a public outcry against the ban on medications, a modified proposal would simply exclude specific descriptions of the categories of U.S.-made goods, and instead leave the determination of goods to ban to the government authorities' discretion. 

We are watching closely the developments and are trying to assess their impact on the cancer patients we support.  Although most of the medications we supply to the patients are shipped from Europe or Canada, they may be manufactured in the U.S.  There is also a possibility of extending the ban to the U.S. allies.  At this time, we anticipate increased difficulty with supply of our patients with modern medications.  We hope that we can continue to rely on your support to help us find solutions to these new challenges and ensure cancer patients continue to have access to lifesaving medications. 

Thank you so much for everything that you do!