Patient Assistance Programs for Hepatitis C Medications

I periodically get questions about financial assistance for hep C treatment from people who don't have health insurance.  Here's phone numbers and links to companies' patient assistance programs that provide free medications to people in this situation who meet their financial eligibility requirements:

Schering-Plough (PEG-Intron, Rebetron): Commitment to Care (website); phone: 1-800-521-7157

Roche (Pegasys, Copegus): Pegassist (website); phone: 1-877-734-2797

Valeant (Infergen): Infergen Aspire* (website); phone: 1-888-668-3393

Three Rivers (Ribasphere [generic ribavirin]): RibaCare (website); phone: 1-866-650-7422

* The Infergen Aspire website was down when I checked; Valeant recently acquired Infergen from InterMune, so there may be a few snags in the transition -- but my understanding is that Valeant intends to maintain a patient assistance program for Infergen.

Comments

[Lisa]

Just wanted everyone to know- you've got to be practically destitute to have the patient assistance program work for you. They seem to forget about a huge segment of people who make more than the poverty level, yet do not have health insurance availible to them. I have contacted the state insurance pool, who will cover me for 700.00 per month, but nothing HCV related will be covered for 12 months after coverage starts.