Starting on June 1, people whose cats are infected with deadly Feline Infectious Peritonitis won’t have to shell out thousands of dollars to shady middlemen importing the cure from China.
FIP is a virtual death sentence for cats, but there’s a drug — GS-441524 — that has a cure rate somewhere around 90 percent, a Godsend for people whose beloved felines are afflicted with the virus.
Previously the only way to get it was through predatory online middlemen who charged exorbitant sums, but thanks to a partnership between UK pharmaceutical company Bova Group and New Jersey-based compounding pharmacy Stokes, the FIP cure will be available legally in the US.
The legal version of the drug will come in a tuna-flavored tablet format and customers can expect to pay a few hundred dollars for a full treatment instead of between $5,000 and $15,000 some paid for the FIP treatment from importers.
A US company invented the drug and held the rights, so it seemed like bringing it to market for cat caretakers would be a no-brainer. Unfortunately, GS-441524 is similar to COVID drug Remdesivir so the company was worried if they submitted the FIP cure to the FDA for approval and the FDA did not grant it, the denial could lead the agency to revoke its approval of Remdesivir due to its molecular similarity.
As a result, innumerable people whose cats were suffering with FIP turned to groups like Facebook’s FIP Warriors to help them obtain GS-441524 illegally. The drug was manufactured by facilities in China, sold to middlemen in the US and Europe, then marked up by eye-watering amounts for sale to people with sick cats.
Last year the feds announced they’d exposed a GS-441524 smuggling ring, alleging a woman from Texas and another from Oregon had made almost $10 million from selling the FIP treatment to panicked cat lovers.
GS-441524 importers knew their customers were desperate to save their beloved feline friends so they’d be willing to pay the extraordinary mark-up — and pay they did.
Here at PITB we’ve interviewed and written about several people whose cats were diagnosed with FIP. One of them, a student, spent her entire savings on GS-441524 obtained through the Facebook group and relied on help from generous donors to raise the rest. Another, a young professional in London, paid even more, spending £7,500 (about $9,400 at the time) on the medication alone, not including vet visits.
A Texas woman whose cat, Seth, was diagnosed with FIP said the middlemen — and women — said the sellers “saw our desperate situation and took advantage of us.”
“It was a very stressful time for us, and every time we needed to refill, they charged us more,” she told PITB. “They knew we couldn’t say no.”
For readers interested in more details about GS-441524, Stokes pharmacy has a resource page that breaks down pricing, shipment times, availability and more.
Parsnip, the cat pictured at the top, and Jupiter, the British shorthair pictured within the story, were both cured after taking full courses of GS-441524.
Pain In The Bud 
This is great news! I follow a girl on twitter and her cat Wintery got it. He was under a year old. She talked about how she had to go out in the middle of the night, on the bus to the vets office when he really started going down hill. It was just heart breaking. People sent money to help pay for the treatment and there was a scare early on because he wasn’t improving like he should. Thankfully, he pulled through and is home with her and his brother Pawsley and doing great. I don’t know how much she spent for the treatment, but it was a lot. Thank god for her twitter friends. He wouldn’t have survived without all the help. And that’s just a sad thought. How many kitties didn’t make it because their owners couldn’t afford to treat them? I just makes you sick to think about it.
Speaking of thinking about something, I’m thinking about those bitches that took advantage of these cat owners. I read something about them a while ago. Did they ever get prosecuted for what they did? People like them make me hate humans more every day. There’s a special place in hell just waiting for them. Karma will come and that gives me comfort! 🤣
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The feds went after them using civil asset forfeiture, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. They had all the books detailing exactly how much was sold, and to whom, over several years.
I can’t find anything about criminal prosecution. Maybe they struck a deal or maybe the feds declined to prosecute for legal reasons. I really don’t know. I should also point out they weren’t the only ones. There were lots of people reselling at a huge markup.
You’re right about the cats who died because people couldn’t afford the inflated prices, and even people like the college student I interviewed were done dirty by the middlemen.
I’m glad Wintery got better. No one wants to get that diagnosis for their cat.
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I am too. He was so close to death, it touch and go for a while. It came on really suddenly too. One day he was fine and then the next day, he’s in bad shape. To watch that play out online and there’s not much you can do to help, is maddening. And like I said, he wasn’t even a year old. 9 months maybe? He went from this thriving little man to a shadow of his former self. I wouldn’t wish FIP on my worst enemies. I hope all our cats, everyone here that follows little Buddy, never get it. I and’t even know HOW cats get it. I mean, what are we supposed to be doing to keep our kitties safe? I have no idea. And I’d never heard of it before last year.
I’m so glad they did something against those women. I hope they took every damn dime they had. I know they weren’t the only ones doing this, but they were the ones that got caught and were made the poster children of the scams. You KNOW this wasn’t their first rodeo for pulling this kind of shit. No one just thinks of doing this on the spur of the moment. I wish they’d caught more people. Now they never will (unless they have cases that were ongoing before the drug comes here) because everyone’s more or less on a level playing field for getting the meds. It’s still gonna be hard to get right away, I’m sure. And it’s still not going to be cheap. But at least now, everyone has a chance to get it for their baby.
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This is great news indeed! In the 70s we lost a kitty to a condition the vets could never diagnose. Looking back, I’m fairly certain it was FIP.
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One common thing I’ve heard from people with FIP cats is that it’s very difficult to diagnose, even now. So they get saddled with huge vet bills on top of the thousands for the black market GS-441.
I’m very happy it’s now available legally.
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