Re: I'm stuck in the UK
They are covered by basic medical insurance in most European countries, and until BREXIT occurs, I could in theory move to France, Holland etc, and get them for free - with the NHS HAVING to pay for them.
This is not for cancer btw, I have something much, MUCH rarer; exact UK figures are impossible to find (I know I am one of only two men being treated by my local, county-wide NHS trust, but the US CDC estimates make me 1 in 1.4 million men.
In a food allergy trial for the illness a couple of years back, they struggled to get 160 patients, even after shipping them in from Ireland, Holland and Norway.
£12k is the headline cost; some people lucky enough to get on the initial drug trials found that the dosages needed started to drop after a couple of years, and now the amount the needed costs £500 - £2k per month.
The alternative NHS treatments are nasty, ineffective and have up to a 16% chance of killing me. BUT ARE CHEAP!!
Just getting a diagnosis was difficult, for 9 1/2 years they just kept telling me I was lazy........
(The US CDC gives the average life expectancy untreated as 4 years)