Tasmanian Dr James Freeman said pharmaceutical companies had been "having a lend" of the public purse through their pricing of drugs.
Dr Freeman was in Dunedin for a "hepster hui" in Northeast Valley last night to celebrate a cure for the potentially fatal hepatitis C virus that attendees had accessed through the drug buyers’ club.
About 30 arrived at the home of resident Hazel Heal, including people from Australia, the North Island and the West Coast who had benefited from a generic version of recently developed life-saving drugs that cure more than 90% of those who use them.
Ms Heal bought drugs in Australia for $3800 about a year ago through Dr Freeman, which would have cost $84,000 in New Zealand.
In January she went public in the Otago Daily Times to urge others with the virus to take the option.
Dr Freeman set up the website FixHepC to source generic forms of the drug from India to provide them cheaper to patients.
He said last night he responded to a request to come to the gathering from Ms Heal and Tina Hill, something he did not usually do.
"This is a one-off, but we’ve actually helped patients from all round the world on every continent, and almost every country now, to access the medication."
More than 2000 people had gone through his website directly, and more had gone through other groups in countries including Russia and Asia that did similar work, Dr Freeman said.
Pharmaceutical companies had been "having a lend" of the public purse for some time, increasing the price of drugs, he said.
Another example was the EpiPen, which recently caused controversy because of a hike in its price.
"It is just rampant rorting."
The Australian Government had agreed to fund the hepatitis C drugs for everybody, and in New Zealand recently for the 50% of the about 50,000 with the virus who had the genotype 1 version, Dr Freeman said.
"That’s wonderful news if you’re in the 50%, and it’s meaningless and kind of sad if you’re not in the 50%."
He had not met many his patients as the work was done over the internet, Dr Freeman said.
"It is really rather nice to meet people you have met online by video, and to actually see them face to face and have a chat."
