New cures for hepatitis C — but are they affordable?

The public health burden of hepatitis C is enormous. This serious viral infection of the liver causes cirrhosis, liver cancer, and end-stage liver failure, often requiring liver transplantation. Over 3 million people in the United States, and 150 million worldwide, are infected with hepatitis C virus, resulting in 700,000 deaths per year. People who are infected with hepatitis C virus often have no symptoms. The virus persists in the liver, slowly damaging liver tissue over a long period of time. For this reason, it is critical that progression of liver damage be stopped before advanced liver disease or liver cancer occurs. But there’s some very good news: in the last few years, we have witnessed extraordinary progress in developing new drug treatments for hepatitis C.  Sofosbuvir (Sovaldi) and sofosbuvir combined with ledipasvir (Harvoni) are two well-known examples of these new drug therapies. Another new combination drug, sofosbuvir and velpatasvir, which was recently described in a report in The New England Journal of Medicine, is extremely effective against most forms of hepatitis C virus and will become the standard therapy when this combination is approved by the FDA. But even though the new drugs can cure hepatitis C in many cases, they are not accessible to all people who need them. The new hepatitis C drugs cost between $80,000 and $150,000 per year. People with excellent insurance coverage may see low out-of-pocket costs for these drugs. But because of the e...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Drugs and Supplements Health Health care Infectious diseases hepatitis C Source Type: news