U.S.A-$373.9 Billion Spent on Drugs in 2014

“Drug spending in the United States last year was one for the record books. Pharmacists filled a record 4.3 billion prescriptions in 2014 that cost nearly $374 billion, according to a new report issued by the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics. 

The 13.1% increase in drug spending in 2014 was mainly driven by two things: the availability of new hepatitis C [HCV] treatments and very few products losing patent protection,” said Murray Aitken, IMS Health senior vice president and the executive director of the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics. “Sovaldi [sofosbuvir; Gilead] was the biggest drug launch in history and accounted for about $8 million, or 2%. of the 13% increase.

As for patent protection, the health system saves money when drugs move from branded products to generics. Typically, there has been a savings of between 15 [billion] and 30 billion a year due to patent expiries. But in 2014, that figure was only $12 billion,” he said”.

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Film Puts Hep C in the Spotlight

A film to raise awareness and increase knowledge of hepatitis C among GPs and other primary care practitioners has been launched today by the Royal College of GPs (RCGP),the Hepatitis C Trust and HCV Action.

Hepatitis C affects around 214,000 people in the UK and the virus can lead to liver disease and cancer, making it a significant public health issue.

With 90% of all patient contacts in the NHS conducted by GPs and their teams, it is likely that patients with hepatitis C will at some point be treated in general practice and wider primary care services, yet guidance from both the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and Public Health England suggests that more needs to be done to raise awareness levels among primary care professionals.

Editor's note:  The link to the film in the article is bad.  Please use this one instead: http://hcvaction.org.uk/resource/film-detecting-managing-hepatitis-c-primary-care

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Could An Allergy Drug Treat Hepatitis C?

An over-the-counter drug commonly used to treat allergies may one day also contribute to the treatment of hepatitis C, according to new research in mice published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

For the last 10 years, researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Hiroshima University have been searching for new, better drugs to treat hepatitis C, an infectious disease that attacks the liver. By screening thousands of drug compounds in a U.S. Food and Drug Administration library—many of which are already approved and on the market—the researchers have determined that a class of antihistamines may be repurposed to treat hepatitis C. The drug chlorcyclizine HCI (CCZ)—a drug that’s been approved since the 1940s—was shown to be the most promising inhibitor of the virus, the new research found.

“Current drugs against hepatitis C, although they are effective, are expensive, have side effects, and are associated with drug resistance,” says study author Dr. T. Jake Liang, a senior investigator of liver disease at NIH. “There’s definitely unmet needs in the current regime of treatment.”

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USA-Lack of Insurance Bars Some from Hepatitis C Treatment

Survey data from 2001 to 2010 show that lack of insurance kept some people with hepatitis C virus from getting treatment.

Recently, more effective and well-tolerated drugs have been developed to treat hepatitis C, removing many of the discouraging side effects of older drugs. The infection is curable and transmission can be prevented, researchers write in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

But for the more than three million people in the U.S. who have chronic liver disease from hepatitis C, there are still two important barriers to getting treatment, said lead author Dr. Ivo Ditah from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

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