The screen portrayal of a cancer sufferer whose illegal import of foreign medicines into China spurred national policy changes has become a box-office smash as audiences flock to a rare Chinese film on a hot-button issue.
Dying to Survive (我不是藥神) is based on Lu Yong (陸勇), who was arrested in 2013 after illegally importing a generic cancer drug in a case that sparked public debate about high medical costs.
It is being compared with Dallas Buyers Club, the critically acclaimed 2013 US film about smuggled HIV treatments, and praised as a breath of fresh air in China’s heavily censored cinema landscape.
The public debate eventually saw Lu’s case dismissed and his experience is credited with prompting government steps to make cancer medicines more accessible and affordable.
Starring popular comic actor and director Xu Zheng (徐崢) as a character modeled after Lu, the movie uses touches of black comedy to leaven the heavy subject matter, and is on course to become one of China’s highest-grossing films.
Released on July 5, it surpassed even the first-week box office take of Wolf Warrior 2 (戰狼2), a commando adventure that last year capitalized on rising patriotism to become China’s highest-grossing movie ever and the first non-Hollywood title in the 100 all-time top earners worldwide.
Lu, now 50, was told in 2002 that he had three years left to live after being diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia.
Doctors said Glivec, manufactured by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis AG, could stabilize his condition until he was able to get a potentially life-saving bone-marrow transplant.
However, Glivec — Novartis’ brand name for the drug Imatinib — would have cost Lu a prohibitive 24,000 yuan (US$3,588 at the current exchange rate) per bottle in China.
However, an Indian generic version cost only 2,000 yuan, so Lu began ordering it from abroad, increasing the volume over the years as other patients sought his help.
The Indian drug was barred under Chinese rules and Lu was eventually arrested.
However, in a rare case of Chinese Communist Party authorities bending to popular opinion, prosecutors in Hunan Province dropped Lu’s case after thousands of Chinese patients with leukemia signed an open letter urging his release.
Lu, who says he never sought to profit from the scheme, was never charged.
Since then, the government has relaxed policies on cancer drug imports and allowed reimbursement for Glivec prescriptions under the national health insurance.
“I know the pressure of being tortured by disease, so I never thought to make one cent,” Lu said in comments on his personal blog.
“Since the movie’s release, it’s become a sensation. To be able to push healthcare reform is an excellent thing,” he added.
Lu, still waiting for a bone-marrow transplant, is now a businessman who owns a hand glove factory in eastern China.
As of Friday, the film had earned 2.04 billion yuan. Wolf Warrior 2 earned a total of 5.67 billion yuan in a 12-week cinema run.
China’s censors rarely green-light mass releases of films on touchy subjects.
However, the key villain in Dying to Survive is the pharmaceutical industry and the Chinese Communist Party apparently saw the propaganda value of a movie that portrays the government as responsive on the issue.
The government earlier this year announced that it would lift tariffs on many cancer treatments and the buzz around the film’s release has coincided with yet more change.
It was late last month announced that dozens of previously barred imported drugs had been added to the national medical insurance.
After the release of Dying to Survive rekindled the discussion, China’s drug administration said it also would remove hurdles to foreign generic drugs “to better satisfy the medication needs of China’s patients.”
The movie hit a 9.1 average rating on popular Chinese film review Web site Douban.com (豆瓣) shortly after its release, one of the site’s highest-ever marks.
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