With his health fast-deteriorating from a hepatitis C infection last year, Steven Wang decided to take his life into his own hands. The prescription medicine he needs isn’t available in China, given the nation’s stringent approval requirements for foreign drugs. So, he formulated a make-shift drug cocktail.
From a Chinese manufacturer of pesticides and fertilizers, the Shanghai-based customer-service worker bought a few grams of daclatasvir, the main ingredient in Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.’s drug Daklinza. Because the drug isn’t yet approved in China, the chemical is supplied by Chinese industrial companies for domestic research and to generic drugmakers overseas as a raw pharmaceutical ingredient.
