Hi everyone, just wanna ask do any of you guys have experience on acquiring generic cancer meds from overseas particulary India or Bangladesh? My mom has lung cancer and she was taking a drug called Tarceva but unfortunately it doesn't work anymore due to mutation of cancer cells. The suggested solution by doctor is to take a new drug called Tagrisso. However, the price of this drug is hefty, it runs about 13k ~ 15k ringgit per month. Obviously, this is not a sustainable solution due to the cost.

I am aware that, to my knowledge, some patients with financial constraint have looked onto India for cheaper alternatives, namely generic anti-cancer medicine. In our case, the generic meds for Tagrisso is Tagrix. The problem is that I believe the custom will most likely seize the meds if I have it shipped into our country (not approved in MY). Therefore, bringing the meds back personally seems like our last resort. However, we would like to gather as much information as possible before making a decision. If anyone here has any info please kindly share it to me, thanks in advance any input is greatly appreciated!

Is your mother under National Cancer Institute follow-up?

As for the generic medicine, perhaps you can try discussing with your mother's oncologist to write an official medical letter stating that she needs the generic meds, perhaps customs will allow that.

I think if under government even original medicines are sponsored right?

This is incorrect. Cancer patients have to pay for doctor consultations fee and anti-cancer treatment (radiotherapy, biopsy, medicine etc). Even civil servants have to pay for cancer treatments if go to National Cancer Institute (Institut Kanser Negara).

Cancer did not happen overnight. Therefore we have to take prevention measures.

No, she is under the care of private hospital doctor. The thing is the medicine is sorta like a copy of the original medicine and it's not regulated in Malaysia. This is why the doctor cannot officially recommend it with letters & etc. Actually I am not certain, but as far as I know, the doctor ought to give the original & approved medicine only. This is just an alternative he suggested under the table, if anything he is not to be held accountable for it. It all kinda lies in the gray area as I am not familiar with the laws in this field.

My mother had breast cancer and the radiotherapy was heavily subsidized. However she did it at HKL and not IKN. Not sure if the terms are different.

There's actually an option to apply for import permit on the medicine that you critically need (life/death matter) from our MoH. Then you can freely buy it from India & ship to Malaysia. Show the approved import permit & the Customs will let it through, probably will just impose 6% import duty only.

But since the medicine that you are looking for in India is an imitation/copy/clone, your import permit application may not be approved. But you might wanna give it a try anyway, just talk to our MoH & see if it's possible to work something out.

This post has been edited by NightHeart: Nov 24 2017, 04:30 PM

Have you found a solution? I do this for my family (3 people with cancer). Much cheaper and medically sound option. Before anything, please get your doctor to issue a prescription for "Osimertinib", which is the chemical name for the medicine and not the brand. Then we might be able to help you.

Hi Sportsfan68, may I know after getting doctor to issue the prescription, how to go about it? I'm looking for similar treatment for my parent. Appreciate your advice.

May i know do you happen to find out the way to get in the Tagrisso to Malaysia? I need the same treatment for my mom too. Please advise.

Hi there, sorry to hear that your mom has cancer. If you want to get Tagrisso you can get it through your doctor I believe. He/She will contact the salesperson for Tagrisso and have you filled up a form to sign up for a patient program. Unless you are referring to the generic version of Tagrisso, then there are a couple of ways to get it.

First, you can ask someone that is currently taking this medicine and is buying it from overseas (India/Blangadesh) to get it for you. This way you can save the hassle of finding the right dealer for the medicine and also save some money from going overseas. However, this option is viable only if you know someone that is in the same shoe. You can try asking your doctor to see if he has any patient that does this and maybe share their contacts with you. This was what we did last time, our doctor gave us a contact of one of his patients and we dealt with the person directly.

Another option is to get the medicine by yourself. There is plenty of information online that can assist you in finding the version of medicine you want (there are a few versions in the market with different price). Some of the dealers do ship to Malaysia. However, be careful to check if the source is legitimate, which is hard to do online. Perhaps making a trip to India or Bangladesh is your best bet.

Lastly, my advice is based on our experience only so in a sense it might be limited. So please do ask around and you might discover more options. If you have any other queries please don't hesitate to PM me. Good luck.

This post has been edited by yungwaltdizney: Nov 20 2018, 12:18 AM

Generic Anti-Cancer Medicine

WHat is this medicine and does it help on cancer with stage 4?

Sorry to hear about your mother's condition.
I suggest trying Double X, Protein and Omega
Kindly PM for details.

Tagrisso is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, which usually
costs a bomb.

You could try supplements to fight your mother's cancer,
which I think is non-small cell lung cancer.

Our own palm oil's tocotrienols, like Tocovid which you find
in the pharmacies here, are cancer fighters.

However, tocotrienols from palm oil are more of a mixed form.

http://americanrivernutrition.com/sources



The forms which they found are the most powerful cancer
fighters are delta and gamma tocotrienols.

Tocotrienols from annato are more of the delta form.




https://www.pureformulas.com/unique-e-mixed...y-ac-grace.html

https://my.iherb.com/pr/Nutricology-Delta-F...-Softgels/45662

https://my.iherb.com/pr/A-C-Grace-Company-U...-Softgels/12977





Delta-tocotrienol inhibits non-small-cell lung cancer cell invasion via
the inhibition of NF-κB, uPA activator, and MMP-9

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/30100736/



Delta-tocotrienol suppresses Notch-1 pathway by upregulating miR-34a
in nonsmall cell lung cancer cells.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/22438124



Inhibition of cell growth and induction of apoptosis in non-small cell lung
cancer cells by delta-tocotrienol is associated with notch-1 down-regulation.


https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/21598300




Cytotoxicity and apoptotic activities of alpha-, gamma- and delta-tocotrienol
isomers on human cancer cells.


https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/25480449



Gamma-tocotrienol reverses multidrug resistance of breast cancer cells
with a mechanism distinct from that of atorvastatin.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/27864002/







" However, accumulating mechanistic and preclinical animal studies
show that other forms of vitamin E, such as γ-tocopherol (γT), δ-tocopherol (δT),
γ-tocotrienol (γTE), and δ-tocotrienol (δTE), have far superior cancer-preventive
activities than does αT. "

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5683003/

Hi I'm asking about osimertinib for my mother. I see that this thread has been many years ago. Hoping to get more updated info, thank you everyone