Global Health Justice Partnership calls for action to lower drug prices

Yale’s Global Health Justice Partnership has released a report warning the international community that scientific discoveries will not be enough to prevent the over 500,000 deaths that occur every year from Hepatitis C.

Last week, in partnership with the AIDS policy think tank Treatment Action Group and the Initiative for Medicines, Access and Knowledge, which aims to increase access to medicines worldwide, the GHJP cautioned that despite the development of Sovaldi — a Hepatitis C drug, marketed since 2013, with a 96 percent efficacy rate in some patients — there are numerous remaining hurdles to ending the “silent epidemic” of Hepatitis C, especially in low- and middle-income countries. In their report, “Ending an Epidemic: Overcoming the Barriers to an HCV Free Future,” the four lead student authors advocated for legal, economic and political solutions to the challenge.

“The bottom line takeaway is that if you make a breakthrough, there is no guarantee that it will get to everyone,” said co-author Kyle Ragins MED ’15 SOM ’15 . “You need innovation in your intellectual property law, your financing and the way care is delivered.”

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Researchers tackle gaps in hepatitis C treatment

“Do One Thing” seeks to provide screenings, treatment to underserved communities

A program run by University researchers aims to quickly identify and provide comprehensive treatment for medically underserved patients who are chronically infected with the hepatitis C virus, according to a new study published in the Feb. 14 issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Hepatitis C — a blood-borne disease that inflames the liver — is an “underfunded, understudied and seriously large health problem,” said Amy Nunn, assistant professor of behavioral and social sciences and medicine, who co-authored the study.

“Its magnitude is not to be underestimated and there are at least five to seven times as many people living with hepatitis C than its more infamous counterpart, HIV,” Nunn said. Unlike for hepatitis A and B, there is no vaccination available for hepatitis C. 

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