US hepatitis C patients travel to India for cheaper Sovaldi versions

Patients in the US and Europe have struggled to get access to the drug after insurers and governments limited its use to the sickest patients to control costs 

New York/Mumbai: This is how far one Express Scripts Holding Co. executive was willing to go to secure inexpensive versions of Gilead Sciences Inc.’s hepatitis C drug Sovaldi, unavailable to US consumers under federal drug import and patent laws.

 

His plan: Dock a cruise ship flying an Indian flag off the coast of Miami. Stock the ship with versions of Sovaldi sold in India for $83,000 less than the US retail price for 12 weeks of treatment. Ferry US patients to the boat and send them home with the potentially life-saving medicines at a huge discount.

 

The only wrinkle in his plan wasn’t the absurdity of a pharmacy benefit manager manning and operating a cruise ship full of drugs from India. The problem, after doing some quick research into the idea, was that it would probably violate US drug re-importation laws that limit the value of drugs brought into the country to $1,500—the price of one and a half Sovaldi tablets in the US, said Steve Miller, chief medical officer at Express Scripts, who came up with the idea.

 

Read more...

Hepatitis C cases continue to rise in Northeast Tennessee

A recent Centers for Disease Control report shows an increase in Hepatitis C in our region. The report shows an increase in Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky.

Health care providers have been discussing the increase for well over a year now to try to limit these numbers. One organization is even working on a pilot program to help educate the community and provide help for those who have tested positive.

"Northeast Tennessee and East Tennessee in general has among the highest rates of Hepatitis C in the country," Northeast Tennessee Regional Medical Director Dr. David Kirschke said.

Read more...

Patient Assistance, by Alan Franciscus, Editor-in-Chief

If you are having trouble with getting the medications?  Try the patient assistance programs for the HCV medications:

• AbbVie 1-844-2proCeed
  https://www.viekira.com/proceed-program
• Gilead  1-855-769-7284
  www.mysupportpath.com/
• Kadmon Pharmaceuticals (Keys Program) 1-888-668-3393  www.hcvadvocate.org/community/community_pdf
  /Riba_CoPay_Cards.pdf
• Moderiba Ribavirin 1.844.MODERIBA (1.844.663.3742)  www.moderiba.com/patient-support/financial
• Needymeds.org  1-800-503-6897 
  www.needymeds.org  
• Partnership for Prescription Assistance  1-888-477-2669  www.pparx.org  
• Patient Access Network Foundation  1-866-316-PANF (7263)  www.panfoundation.org/  
• Patient Advocate Foundation  Co-Pay Relief     1-866-512-3861  www.copays.org/diseases/hepatitis-c

http://hcvadvocate.org/news/newsLetter/2015/advocate0615.html#5

Appalachia Gripped by Hepatitis C Epidemic, Bracing for HIV

Patton Couch shook his head and clenched his teeth, recounting the night four years ago when he plucked a dirty needle from a pile at a flophouse and jabbed it into his scarred arm.

He knew the odds; most of the addicts in the room probably had hepatitis C.

"All I cared about was how soon and how fast I could get it in," he says. "I hated myself, it was misery. But when you're in the grips of it, the only way I thought I could escape it was one more time."

Couch, 25 years old and one month sober, is one of thousands of young Appalachian drug users recently diagnosed with hepatitis C. Yet public health officials warn that it could get much worse.

Read more...

Reinfection after hepatitis C cure: prevention may require long-term support for people who have injected drugs

Reinfection rates after hepatitis C cure among people who inject drug users, as well as past drug users, are relatively low, according to findings from studies from Norway and Canada presented at the International Liver Congress in Vienna in April.

The findings suggest that current and former injecting drug users who have been cured of hepatitis C require ongoing support to remain free of hepatitis C, but also indicate that fears of a high rate of reinfection should not be used as a reason to withhold hepatitis C treatment from people who inject drugs.

A meta-analysis of studies of hepatitis C treatment outcomes in people who inject drugs, published in 2013, found an incidence of between 2.4 and 6.4 per 100 person-years of follow-up, but a subsequent meta-analysis found that the reinfection rate could be as high as 8%. (Aspinall 2013, Hill 2014)

Read more....

Hedge Fund Billionaires Are New Target for Hepatitis C Cure Protests

 The New York City home and offices of former hedge fund manager Julian H. Robertson were targeted by protest groups in a series of simultaneous direct actions in early May. Robertson is ranked No. 512 on Forbes' list of "the world's billionaires" with a reported net worth of $3.4 billion. "Robertson is making a killing off of people with Hep C," read one sign.

The protests targeted high profile hedge fund investors who have reaped substantial profits from the California-based pharmaceutical giant Gilead Sciences. Hedge Clippers, a coalition of labor, community and social justice groups including VOCAL-NY, seeks to draw links between hedge funds and income inequality, mass imprisonment, climate change, health disparities, and other challenges. Gilead has been targeted because of what has been called "exorbitant" pricing for its groundbreaking new class of drugs that can cure hepatitis C virus (HCV), such as Sovaldi, and the enormous profits they have generated.

HCV infection "is the most common chronic blood borne infection in the United States [and] approximately 3.2 million persons are chronically infected," according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). About 150 million people around the globe are living with HCV -- disproportionately the poor, uninsured and incarcerated -- which in its advanced stages can cause cirrhosis or liver cancer.

Read more...

Illinois doctors group wants Rauner to veto hepatitis C bill

CHICAGO (AP) - With three out of four Americans who are infected unaware they have hepatitis C, Illinois lawmakers last month approved a measure to fight what’s been called a silent epidemic.

The state’s largest doctors group is now urging Gov. Bruce Rauner to veto the bill that would require doctors to offer blood tests for the contagious liver disease to baby boomers - those born between 1945 and 1965. That’s been the recommendation of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since 2012.

Doctors don’t need lawmakers telling them to follow guidelines, the Illinois State Medical Society insists.

The legislation “intrudes on the physician’s judgment and relationship with the patient, and doesn’t guarantee that patients who do test positive for this liver disease will have access to treatment, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars,” said Illinois State Medical Society President Dr. Scott Cooper.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jun/4/illinois-doctors-group-wants-rauner-veto-on-hepati/#ixzz3c9IO7pkl