The Movie  "Dying to Survive"  - Chronic myeloid leukemia - CML

"Dying to Survive is a 2018 Chinese comedy-drama film[3] directed by Wen Muye in his feature film debut. The film is based on the real-life story of Lu Yong (陆勇), a Chinese leukemia patient who smuggled cheap but unproven cancer medicine from India for 1,000 Chinese cancer sufferers in 2004.[4][5] Dying to Survive stars Xu Zheng in the lead role, who also co-produced the film with Ning Hao.

Plot
                                                                   
An aphrodisiac peddler, Cheng Yong is in financial trouble. His store has not been making profits for a long time and his father urgently needs a large sum of money for brain surgery.

One day a man wearing thick layers of surgical masks comes to his shop. He asks Cheng to bring a cheap drug from India in return for a large sum of money. Due to patent protection, the Swiss drug Imatinib is very expensive cannot be afforded by most leukemia patients in China. However, a special inexpensive generic version of it is available in India.

Desperate for money, Cheng agrees to risk smuggling the drug into China. As more chronic myelogenous leukemia patients start to buy drugs from him, Cheng became rich. His motivation started to change after he witnessed devastated patients whose family has been pushed into poverty by costly cancer treatments, walk away with hope for the future.
At the same time, Chinese police noticed the availability of the contraband Geliening and vowed to crackdown on the unlicensed generic drug, as the originator company Novartis sued the Indian government for infringing its patent."
Real case  
Yong Lu of Wuxi, Jiangsu, owner of the Wuxi Zhensheng Knitwear Co., Ltd., was a patient with chronic myeloid leukemia and the inspiration of the movie "Dying to Survive". Lu Yong was called "the first person to purchase anticancer drugs" because he shared the purchase of the imitation "Gleevec" Indian anticancer drug channel for more than a thousand netizens.

In 2002, he was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia. The doctor recommended that he take anti-cancer called "Gleevec" produced by Swiss Novartis. The price of the drug was as high as 23,500 yuan, and a patient with chronic myeloid leukemia needs to take one box per month.[citation needed]
In June 2004, Lu Yong accidentally learned that the imitation "Gleevec" anticancer drug produced in India was of almost the same quality, but offered at a price of only 4,000 yuan for a box. The comparison of the two Gleevec comparison tests in India and Switzerland showed that the drug similarity was 99.9%. Later, Lu Yong helped thousands of patients to buy this drug.[citation needed]

On July 21, 2014, the Qijiang City Procuratorate arrested Lu Yonggong to the Qijiang City Court on charges of “damaging credit card management” and “selling fake drugs”.[citation needed]
On January 27, 2015, the Qijiang City Procuratorate requested the court to withdraw the lawsuit against Lu Yong, and the court made a ruling on the “withdrawal of the lawsuit” on the same day.
After Lu Yong was arrested, more than 300 patients jointly called him to plead, and he hoped that the judiciary could find Lu Yong not guilty.[citation needed]
On the afternoon of January 29, 2015, the Hunan Qijiang City Procuratorate made a final decision, arguing that Lu Yong's behavior did not constitute a crime, and decided not to sue, Lu Yong was released.[citation needed]
After release，Lu Yong wants to set up a volunteer organization or charitable foundation to serve leukemia patients. "One can end the weakness of single-handedness, and secondly, it can better serve more professionally and professionally."
Extract of Wikipedia

VIDEOS

'Dying to Survive' hits a nerve on costly cancer drugs
July 20, 2018, CGTN

Dying To Survive 2018 (the movie)

ARTICLES

Indian firms can now access China's cancer drug market
Jan 11, 2019, The Times of India

Dying to Survive (China, 2018)
November 27, 2018, VCinema

Dying to Survive: How A Canadian Pharmacy Could Resolve the Search for Illegal Cancer Drugs
July 23 , 2018. Canadian pharmacy drug

Chinese Hit Movie ‘Dying to Survive’ Injects Urgency in Drug-Price Push
July 17, 2018, The Wall Street Journal    

Patent Reexamination Board of China’s Patent Office Invalidated Novartis’ Patent on Gleevec
January 27, 2016, Third World Network

Leukemia patient prosecuted for buying pills overseas
December 22, 2014, China.org.cn

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