Minnesota DOC Sued Over Failure to Provide New Hepatitis C Treatment Protocol

On May 1, 2015, two prisoners at MCF-Stillwater filed a civil rights lawsuit against the Minnesota Department of Corrections, Centurion Managed Care (a division of Centene Corporation), DOC Commissioner Tom Roy and several physicians. The suit alleges that the defendants “refuse to provide the ‘breakthrough’ drug treatment, viz. the hepatitis-C [HCV] treatment community standard-of-care, which will cure Plaintiffs’ HCV infection in three months from its inception.”

According to a press release issued by the International Humanitarian Law Institute, the lawsuit is “the first federal civil rights class action in the nation” to challenge the failure of state prison officials to provide prisoners with a new, more effective hepatitis C treatment protocol.

The plaintiffs, Minnesota state prisoners Ronaldo Ligons and Barry Michaelson, seek to represent a class of similarly situated prisoners. Ligons, incarcerated since 1992, was prescribed the standard 48-week HCV treatment protocol using interferon in 2006. The treatment was not successful. Michaelson initially tested negative for HCV but tested positive for the disease in 2010. The suit states that Michaelson tested positive “only after being double-bunked with a bleeding, HCV-positive cellmate and his exposure to other sources of HCV in MN DOC facilities.”

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As insurers limit access to hep C drugs, patients and doctors bristle

Doctors are finding themselves in tense situations as they try to prescribe new hepatitis C drugs to patients eager for a cure while health plans limit coverage to manage the costs of the medications.

Many health insurers have established prior-authorization criteria generally limiting access to the drugs to patients whose disease has progressed to at least Stage 3 fibrosis (just before the onset of liver cirrhosis).

The sticker prices of a course of treatment of the drugs range as high as $95,000. To mitigate the burden, major health insurers and pharmacy benefit management companies have entered special pricing agreements with Gilead for its new hepatitis C drugs Harvoni and Sovaldi or AbbVie for its competing drug Viekira Pak.

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Australia: Lives Could Be Saved with New Hepatitis C Therapy

In a letter to the Medical Journal of Australia, a Monash University-led team is asking for hepatitis C virus patients to gain improved access to drugs to prevent liver related deaths.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major public health burden in Australia, with estimates of 230,000 people chronically infected.

The research team are calling for the government to subsidize a new therapy which has high cure rates, known as direct acting antiviral (DAA) therapy.

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Canada: Hepatitis C: breakthrough drug coverage a lifesaver for B.C. man

Kaslo resident Desmond McKilligan contracted hepatitis C more than 40 years ago from a tainted blood transfusion, and just got a call saying he qualifies for Sovaldi.

"My liver doesn't have anywhere to go but cirrhosis," he told CBC News. "It was a great thing to be called about that."

McKilligan says it's a new lease on life, and is thrilled he may actually see his grandchildren in Montreal.

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Canada: Province covers cost of new hepatitis C drugs

The Saskatchewan government says it will now provide new drug coverage for hepatitis C -- a viral disease that affects the liver.

Health Minister Dustin Duncan says the new drugs, Harvoni and Sovaldi, are better tolerated by patients than other therapies.

The drugs are said to cure 90 to 98 per cent of patients in as little as eight to 12 weeks.

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Canada: Ontario decision to cover costly hepatitis C drug a lifesaver, doctor says

Ottawa liver specialist Dr. Curtis Cooper is calling Ontario’s decision to pay for new treatments that can cure hepatitis C a “landmark event” that will change the lives of thousands of people with the disease.

Cooper, director of The Ottawa Hospital and Regional Hepatitis Program, sees thousands of hepatitis C patients, many of whom will benefit from the new drug therapy now that it is covered by the province.

“This is going to mean the difference between health or illness and death,” for many patients, he said.

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Ireland: UP to 80 seriously ill Hepatitis C patients have cleared virus from their blood

New treatment was given to the patients after doctors warned they were not responding to other drugs.

The treatment, which costs around €45,000 to €55,000 per patient was given to the patients after doctors warned they were not responding to other drugs.

Dr Suzanne Norris, a gastroenterologist at St James's Hospital in Dublin, said the patients will continue to be monitored over the coming months to determine their response.

Earlier this year Health Minister Leo Varadkar said a programme was being put in place to provide early access to the powerful new direct-acting anti-viral drugs for Hepatitis C patients with the greatest clinical need, due to the advanced nature of their condition.

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Australia: More Australians with Hepatitis C hope new drugs will be approved by Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme

Nearly 250,000 Australians with Hepatitis C hope new drugs will be approved by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). 

Current medication can require 6-12 months of treatment and for many patients causes debilitating side effects like nausea, hair loss and depression.

Hepatitis Queensland spokeswoman Jodie Walton said while the available drugs had an 80 per cent cure rate, the emotional and physical cost was often too high.

She said the stigma associated with Hepatitis C meant many sufferers were reluctant to tell their family or work colleagues they were infected.

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Why we need a petition to increase access to novel therapies

The Alliance for the Adoption of Innovations in Medicine (Aimed Alliance) believes Americans are better served through policies that define the value of new therapies in patient terms, not upfront costs. This means assessing novel therapies on the basis of improved longevity, productivity, and quality of life where the payoff can be substantial.

Given that restricting access harms patients, 15 states and the District of Columbia are taking action, including Delaware, Maryland, and Louisiana, which passed laws capping co-pays on specialty medicines.  Yet, if the real value of novel therapies is to be realized, we need more patient protections at the state and federal levels.  Instead of a petition to impose more cost containment policies, now is the time for a petition to increase patient access to novel therapies through legislative and regulatory remedies.

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Scotland: Scots patients first in UK to hepatitis C ‘cure’

HEPATITIS C sufferers in Scotland are the first patients in the UK to be given access to a new treatment that cures up to 99 per cent of cases in eight or 12 weeks.

The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) has accepted for use Harvoni for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C which affects one in every 100 people in Scotland and causes more than 20 per cent of all liver transplants.

Approximately 50,000 people in Scotland are infected with hepatitis C, which can cause liver cancer or liver failure – equivalent to around 1 per cent of the Scottish population.

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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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Only the Sickest Hepatitis C Patients Get High Cost Drugs in Medi-Cal

Drugs may be behind her, but Lovelace now lives with Hepatitis C, a result of her drug use. The disease is damaging her liver.

“I can sleep 20 hours a day, literally, with no interruptions, just sleep," she says.

The treatment Lovelace needs could cost the state as much as $85,000 for a full course.  Only people with advanced liver disease or other severe related conditions are eligible for the treatment under Medi-Cal.

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