Plot

In 1985 Dallas, electrician and hustler Ron Woodroof works around the system to help AIDS patients get the medication they need after he is diagnosed with the disease.

In mid 1980s Texas, electrician Ron Woodroof is starting to learn that he has AIDS. Though told he has just 30 days left to live, Woodroof refuses to give in to despair. He seeks out alternative therapies and smuggles approved drugs into the US from where ever he can find them. Woodroof joins forces with a fellow AIDS patient and begins selling the treatments to the growing number of people who can't wait for the medical establishment to save them.—Gerry Garcia

In 1986, Texas, womanizer Ron Woodruff (McConaughey, in an Oscar-winning performance) is completely oblivious to AIDS, even as it spreads through the world, terrifying the public. So when Ron contracts HIV, he is blindsided. Given just 30 days to live, he tries in vain to be included in the AZT drug trial. Ron seeks out other untested, alternative medications in Mexico, and establishes an underground network of drug supply for the growing increasing numbers of HIV and AIDS.

Dallas 1985. Ron Woodroof, a sexually reckless electrician and rodeo cowboy, is shocked to discover he has 30 days to live. Diagnosed as HIV positive, Ron refuses to accept the harsh truth of his inevitable mortality and plucks up the courage to cross the border into Mexico in search of alternative treatment. As a result, Ron smuggles non-FDA-approved drugs and supplements into the United States, challenging the medical community, including his physician, Dr Eve Saks. Seeking to find a workaround and avoid government sanctions against him, Woodroof soon joins forces with unlikely ally Rayon, a fellow transgender patient sharing the same lust for life. Together, they establish a "buyers club". There, HIV-positive people can have access to unapproved pharmaceutical remedies for a monthly fee. As Ron and Rayon's community expands, Woodroof's Dallas Buyers Club aims to raise awareness and fight intolerance. Ron also fights for dignity and the right to live.—Nick Riganas

The story of Texas electrician Ron Woodroof and his battle with the medical establishment and pharmaceutical companies after being diagnosed as HIV-positive in 1986, and his search for alternative treatments that helped establish a way in which fellow HIV-positive people could join for access to his supplies.—Focus Features

In 1985 Dallas, Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey) is a promiscuous electrician and rodeo cowboy with homophobic views. Tucker (Steve Zahn) is a Dallas Police Officer and Ron's friend. Ron makes money by betting on rodeo events but frequently loses and is chased down by his creditors. TJ (Kevin Rankin) is Ron's friend and they both work at the same oil company crew. Ron starts to have some symptoms like dizziness and blacking out. After having a black out episode at the oil rig, he is admitted to the hospital.

Ron is diagnosed with HIV and given 30 days to live. His T-cell count is down to 9, when normal is between 500 and 1500. The doctors are surprised that he is even alive. He initially refuses to accept the diagnosis but remembers having unprotected sex with a prostitute at a rodeo who was also an intravenous drug user.

Ron quickly finds himself ostracized by family and friends, who mistakenly assume that he contracted AIDS from gay sex (even though he is straight). At the hospital, he is tended to by Dr. Eve Saks (Jennifer Garner), who tells him that they are testing a Antiretroviral drug called Zidovudine (AZT), that is thought to prolong the life of AIDS patients, and the only drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for testing on humans.

AZT was developed as a treatment for cancer, but the makers Avinex industries claim that the drug works on attacking the virus cells and restoring immunity. Saks tells the Avinex representative that the AZT was discontinued in 1964 due to being ineffective against cancer and toxicity. Avinex say that the toxicity was due to dosage levels. Avinex is handsomely compensating the doctors of the participating hospitals to put patients on their human trial program. Saks's boss Dr. Sevard (Denis O'Hare) encourages her to put patients on the trial as there is nothing else out there that is working against AIDS.

Ron wants to buy a regular supply of AZT. Saks informs Ron, that in the clinical trials, half the patients receive the drug, and the other half are given a placebo. Even the doctors are not allowed to know who gets what, which is a double-blind study. She tells Ron that this is the only way they can determine if the drug is working. Ron finds that the foreign drugs such as the DDC (which protects the healthy cells from getting AIDS), Dextran Sulphate and Peptide-T are not approved by the FDA and hence unavailable in the US.

Ron bribes a hospital worker to get him the AZT. As soon as he begins taking it, he finds his health deteriorating (exacerbated by his cocaine use). Ron is also not allowed to return to work by his colleagues, including TJ, who refuse to work with him. The hospital worker cannot get Ron more AZT as they have started to lock up the supplies. He gives Ron the name and address of a Mexican doctor who can help him. Ron again blacks out in the hospital parking lot and is admitted. When he regains consciousness, Saks tells him that he was given a blood transfusion due to the toxicity from the AZT.

At the hospital, Ron meets Rayon (Jared Leto), an HIV-positive transgender woman, towards whom he is hostile. But Rayon is persistent and gradually they start playing cards and get to know each other. As Saks still refuses to give him AZT treatment, Ron checks himself out of the hospital. As his health worsens, Ron drives to the Mexican address to get more AZT. Dr. Vass (Griffin Dunne), who has had his American medical license revoked because his work with people with AIDS had violated US regulations. Vass tells Ron that the AZT is "poisonous" and "kills every cell it comes into contact with". Instead, he prescribes a cocktail of drugs and nutritional supplements centered on DDC and the protein Peptide T, which are not yet approved for use in the United States by the FDA.

Three months later, Ron finds his health much improved. It occurs to him that he could make money by importing the drugs and selling them to other HIV-positive patients. Since the drugs are not illegal, he is able to get them over the border by masquerading as a priest with cancer and swearing that they are for personal use. This also brings Ron on the radar of FDA officer Richard Barkley (Michael O'Neill). Richard warns Ron that he will be thrown in jail if he tries to sell the unauthorized drugs in the USA. Meanwhile, Dr. Saks also begins to notice the negative effects of AZT (most patients in the drug require a blood transfusion) but is told by her supervisor Dr. Sevard that it cannot be discontinued.

Woodroof starts selling the drugs in Dallas on the street, at gay nightclubs, and discotheque bars. He comes back into contact with Rayon, with whom he reluctantly sets up business (with a 25% commission for Rayon) since she can bring many more clients. The pair establish the "Dallas Buyers Club", charging $400 per month for membership, and giving away the drugs to members to circumvent the laws that made it illegal to sell the drugs. The Club becomes extremely popular. Ron gradually begins to respect Rayon and thinks of her as a friend.

Ron hires David Wayne (Dallas Roberts) as his lawyer to take care of his company paperwork. Meanwhile AZT is approved by the FDA at the cost of $10,000 per patient per year, making it the most expensive drug ever marketed. Ron imports another drug Interferon from Japan to add to his club.

When Ron has a heart attack as a result of the overdose of Interferon, Dr. Sevard learns of the club and the alternative medication. He is angry that it is interrupting his trial as most of his patients have switched to Ron for medication and treatment. Ron refuses to take the AZT prescribed by Sevard and again walks out of the hospital. Richard Barkley of the FDA confiscates the DDC and threatens to have Ron arrested. Dr. Saks agrees that there are benefits to Buyers Clubs (of which there are several around the country) but feels powerless to change anything. The process the FDA uses to research, test, and approve drugs is considered flawed and part of the problem for people suffering from AIDS. At that time, the United States and the FDA were particularly conservative by international standards in testing and approving anti-AIDS drugs. They were hostile to imported drugs to the point they were made contraband. Dr. Saks and Ron begin a friendship.

Ron sources his medicines from China, Israel and any other country who would agree to sell to him. Even the hospital nurse Denise joins Ron and helps to bring in more people that Ron can help.

Barkley gets a police permit to raid the Buyers Club, but cannot do anything except give Ron a fine. In March 1987, the FDA changes its regulations such that any unapproved drug is also illegal. Ron now needs a MD to prescribe these medications before he can sell them.

As the Club runs out of funds, Rayon, who has become dependent on cocaine, begs her father for money, who refuses to help her out. Rayon tells Ron that she has sold her life insurance policy to raise money. Ron is thus able to travel to Mexico and get more of the Peptide T. Saks also refuses to prescribe the medications as she prefers to go by the book. Ron steals Saks' prescription pad and uses that to prescribe the drugs he brings into the US.

On one of his trips, Rayon dies in the hospital. Ron returns and confronts Savera, whom he calls a murderer. Ron tells Saks that AZT killed Rayon, but she is adamant that he was a drug addict. Saks returns to the hospital and takes all of her patients off AZT. When Savera finds out, he fires Saks.

After Rayon's death, Ron begins to show more compassion toward LGBT members of the club, and making money becomes less of a concern; his priority becomes providing the drugs as Peptide T gets increasingly challenging to acquire. Ron files a lawsuit against the FDA. He seeks the legal right to take the protein, which has been confirmed as non-toxic but is still not approved. The judge is compassionate towards Ron but lacks the legal tools to do anything. As the film ends, on-screen text reveals that the FDA later allowed Ron to take Peptide T for personal use, and that he died of AIDS in 1992, seven years later than doctors predicted. A lower dose of AZT became widely used in later drug combinations and saved millions of lives.