Spain: Hepatitis C patients’ demonstration calls for blanket provision of state-of-the-art medication

AT LEAST 4,000 Hepatitis C patients and their relatives and friends took to the streets of Madrid yesterday (Sunday) calling for the government to agree to their being given the correct medication once and for all.

Latest-generation pills which, in most cases, successfully treat the liver disease are not fully available on the Spanish health service at present because of their high cost.

Those who have been denied this medication say they are up against the clock and that if they do not get it soon, it will be too late.

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Spain: Hepatitis C patient feels like a new man

ISIDORO ESCAMILLA was tired of feeling like he always had the flu, an effect of suffering from Hepatitis C that was diagnosed in 2007.

A drug called Sovaldi was hailed as something that would completely change things for him and has been prescribed in Spain for 18 months. Unfortunately, until January 2015 it was not available to patients in Andalucia, where Escamilla lives.

He fought to get the drug to Andalucia, and even tweeted Susana Diaz, president of the Junta de Andalucia regional government.

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Spain: Hepatitis C patients protest in Madrid demanding access to medicine

Nayara is only 21 years old and has already reached the final stage of Hepatits C, a burden she has had to endure since the day she was born.

She was infected with Hepatitis C by her mother from birth. A disease that kills 12 people a day in Spain alone, according to the platform of those affected.

Dozens of those affected by the disease have gathered with their friends and families outside Gilead's Spanish headquarters to protest. The US pharmaceutical company produces Sovaldi, the medicine that can save the 200,000 people, who like Nayara, are infected by Hepatitis C in Spain.

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New hepatitis drugs raise political pressure in Spain

MADRID - The arrival in Europe of better but pricier hepatitis C drugs has raised pressure on Spanish leaders over health spending cuts which sufferers say deprive them of life-saving treatments.

Hundreds of people have marched in Madrid and other Spanish towns demanding the government authorise doctors to prescribe the latest treatments for the deadly liver disease for whoever needs them.

Discussions over the new treatments have also erupted in the United States and France as the hopes raised by more effective treatments clash with public health budget restrictions.

- See more at: http://yourhealth.asiaone.com/content/new-hepatitis-drugs-raise-political-pressure-spain#sthash.augOhfHP.dpuf

Spain vows hepatitis C action after calls for new drugs

Madrid (AFP) - Spain's government Monday promised new measures to fight hepatitis C, following protests by patients who complained authorities were denying them the latest drugs to treat the deadly liver disease.

A new committee will draw up a proposal within three weeks of examining the extent of the illness and clinical criteria, aiming to "include newly authorised drugs" in treatment plans, the health ministry said in a statement.

But it did not specify whether it would widen access to the latest generation of hepatitis drugs to more patients as campaigners in Spain and other countries are demanding.

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Spain: Health Thousands Protest in Spain for Better Hepatitis C Treatment

Thousands of people affected by hepatitis C have marched in several Spanish cities to press for easier access to latest-generation medicines for the deadly liver disease.

The Platform of People Affected by Hepatitis C, which organized the protests, says the government is applying a "confused and selective" approach to treatment by not providing expensive drugs to all patients equally.

One protest started early Saturday at Madrid's 12 de Octubre hospital and marched 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) to Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's office.

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Spanish hepatitis C patients to march for access to expensive new drugs

Podemos leader asks sufferers to go with him to Brussels to explain their plight to MEPs 

Hepatitis C patients will march in Madrid on Saturday to demand access to expensive new drugs that the government only offers sparingly through the public health system.

“We will demand to be seen by [Prime Minister Mariano] Rajoy,” said Mario Cortés, president of the support group Plataforma de Afectados por la Hepatitis C, which is organizing the rally.

This group has been staging a sit-in at the capital’s 12 de Octubre hospital for the last 20 days, and is now ready to take its demands right to La Moncloa prime ministerial palace.

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