Patients turn to online shopping to buy prescription drugs for less

Patients in the West Country are buying their own drugs online - because the NHS can't afford to buy them for them. >A network of people with Hepatitis C have set up the "buyers club" to buy a generic drug that on the NHS costs £35,000 but the same course from a supplier in India costs just £650.

Zoe Sharman from Ippleden, near Newton Abbot was diagnosed with Hepatitis C four years ago, she's had it for probably more than 20 years.>Although the condition is debilitating, she was not entitled to get the drug that could treat it until it got worse. That's because, according to Zoe, the drug Harvoni cost £35,000 for a 12 week course.

That cost has led patients to go into the international drug trade themselves to track a version of it down at a fraction of the price. >Doctors have warned that buying your own drugs off the shelf can be dangerous. >Zoe says she's confident this drug, while not officially prescribed by her doctor, is safe to use. She says it's been tested in Australia and is proven to work. For her, it's transformed her life.

The frustration for patients like Zoe is the fact that there is a potential cure for Hepatitis C, but you have to be ill enough to get it.

What other option do they have but to look for themselves?