The Dark Side of Letting Insurance Payers Dictate Hepatitis C Treatment

Imagine that you have a disease and you have two choices of treatment. Both treatments are highly effective at treating your condition. Medication A has mild side effects. Medication B has lots of side effects including, fatigue, nausea, itching, insomnia, and weakness. Pretty much everyone who takes medication B has side effects. Medication A is a pill a day; medication B uses two pills in the morning and one at night, and sometimes additional pills are prescribed that must be taken twice daily. Medication B has the potential to interact with more drugs than medication A does. Which would you pick? I assume you'd pick medication A.

Your doctor would likely recommend medication A. Drug regimens with many side effects means that you are more likely to need assistance from your health care team, perhaps needing additional laboratory tests to monitor your safety. If your doctor has more patients on medication B, then your doctor's schedule will use appointment slots for side effect management, rather than for seeing other patients who also need to be treated.

So, it seems like medication A is the obvious choice. Unfortunately, for many people with hepatitis C, it isn't. In this case, medication A represents Gilead Sciences' Harvoni; medication B represents AbbVie's Viekira Pak or Technivie. Harvoni is not covered under all insurance plans, such as those using Express Scripts. In short, your doctor may want to treat you with Harvoni, but your insurance may not carry it on its drug formulary. Your hep C treatment may be limited to medication B.

Read more....

Q&A with AbbVie's Barry Bernstein, MD: Are More FDA Warnings in the Works ?

Note:  In addition to the label change and warning about their currently approved medications Dr. Bernstein gives an estimate on a possible approval of AbbVie's new pan-genotypic combination.  Alan


The effectiveness of the new arsenal of hepatitis C antivirals has elated physicians and patients and been a triumph—and lucrative development--for pharmaceutical companies.

The announcement on Oct. 22 that AbbVie, manufacturer of two such drug products was changing labeling to include new warnings dampened the euphoria. Post-marketing reports alerted the company and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of patient deaths and severe liver damage sometimes requiring transplantation in some patients who received AbbVie’s treatments.

The company, in consultation with the FDA changed its package inserts and labeling for Viekira Pak (ombitasvir, paritaprevir, and ritonavir tablets; dasabuvir tablets) and Technivie (ombitasvir, paritaprevir, and ritonavir tablets.

Read more...

Bristol-Myers Tops Estimates on Cancer, Hepatitis C Sales

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., a drugmaker increasingly focused on developing new cancer treatments, beat third-quarter profit estimates on better-than-expected revenue from its oncology drug Opdivo and the start of U.S. sales for its hepatitis C drug.

Third-quarter earnings, excluding one-time items, were 39 cents a share, beating the 35-cent average of analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales rose 3.7 percent from a year earlier to $4.07 billion. Analysts had estimated $3.86 billion on average.

The New York-based company also raised its full-year sales forecast to a range of $16 billion to $16.4 billion, from a prior projection of $15.5 billion to $15.9 billion, and increased its full-year adjusted earnings forecast to $1.85 to $1.90 a share, from a previous estimate of $1.70 to $1.80 a share. It’s the third time Bristol-Myers has raised its earnings projections this year.

Read more....

Check out the Staff of HCSP / HCV Advocate

About Us

The Hepatitis C Support Project (HCSP) is a registered non-profit organization founded in 1997 by Alan Franciscus and other HCV positive individuals to address the lack of education, support, and services available at that time for the HCV population.

	Alan Franciscus – Executive Director, HCSP and Editor-in-Chief, HCV Advocate Website. Alan has been working in hepatitis C and HCSP since 1997 and considers HCV advocacy his highest priority.
Clara Maltrás is an English to Spanish translator – Clara has over 20 years of experience in the medical field. Clara specializes in translating HIV/Hepatitis C newsletters, pharmaceutical brochures, and information about Cardiology/Neurology implanted devices. Clara has been working with the Hepatitis C Support Project/ HCV Advocate since 2002 and in HIV since 1995.
	Jacques Chambers, , Benefits Counselor in private practice with over 40 years of experience in public benefits and private insurance. Jacques has been working in Hepatitis C and HCSP since 2003, and in HIV since 1990.
Judith Barlow, Webmaster, HCV Advocate Website.Judith consults with a wide variety of small business owners and non-profits about building and/or maintaining existing websites.
	Kate Frye, Administrative Assistant.Kate started working with HCSP in 2007 and has performed many duties over the years. Her current focus is primarily handling correspondence from prisoners. She answers the many letters we receive and sends information to people that do not have access to our website.
Leslie Hoex, Owner of Blue Kangaroo Design. Leslie has been doing graphic design and desktop publishing with Alan and the HCV Advocate since 2006. Alan has always allowed her free rein with her designing. She is honored to be working for such a wonderful group, helping to spread their awareness of HCV and HBV.
	Lucinda K. Porter, RN has written for the HCV Advocate since 1998. She is the author of Free from Hepatitis C and Hepatitis C One Step at a Time. Lucinda underwent three hepatitis C treatments and is now cured.
Rose Christensen, Office Manager, Assistant Editor. Rose started as a volunteer with HCSP in 1997 and has become an integral part of the day to day operations of the project.

Dr. David Mazoff

Dr. David Mazoff

It is with regret that we announce that Dr. Mazoff has retired from the Hepatitis C Support Project (HCSP)/HCV Advocate effective September 30, 2015. We are happy for David, but he will be missed by all of us at HCSP and the hepatitis C community.

David became a full-time employee of HCSP/HCV Advocate on January 01, 2003 although he did volunteer work for us prior to his official start day. David’s responsibilities included webmaster, general editor, and production of our fact sheets/guides, and newsletters, and many additional duties.

From the beginning, David raised our game.  He was an important part of our growth from a small local group in San Francisco, CA to a large national advocacy organization. He helped us implement a new website in early 2000’s, and he designed and implemented our current site that we launched in September 2015.

David took on many duties throughout the years that included the production of our fact sheets, guides, and our newsletters. David also was in charge of posting news items to our blog and many, many more duties.  His shoes will be hard to fill.

David lives in Victoria, B.C., Canada.  He will be spending time playing swing jazz, Latin jazz and Argentine tango with his accordion.  His aim is to join a group and play professionally.  He also plans on hiking, bird watching and volunteering for HepCBC in his spare time.  Knowing David he will accomplish all of his wish list and much more.

We wish David the best of luck as he lives his so-called retirement to the fullest.  I hope that David realizes how much his work has helped thousands of people with hepatitis C and B.

If you happen to run into David, give him a big ole Canadian ‘hi’ and a bear hug for all his great work.

Alan and the staff of the
Hepatitis C Support Project/HCV Advocate

[HAP] NASTAD Releases White Paper on Drug User Health and ACA Opportunities‏

With generous support from the Elton John AIDS Foundation, NASTAD is pleased to announce the release of a new white paper: Modernizing Public Health to Meet the Needs of People Who Use Drugs: Affordable Care Act Opportunities. The paper assesses new financing and delivery models for drug user health services. Working with the O’Neill Institute for National & Global Health Law, the project team focused on coverage and financing opportunities for community-based drug user health and harm reduction services typically not covered by insurance. Research focused on eight states, assessing how health departments, community-based organizations, Medicaid programs and plans and hospitals are working together to better address the needs of people who use drugs.

The need to find creative solutions to ensure that broader health care systems and payers are providing prevention, care, and treatment services for people who use drugs comes in the midst of a public health crisis for this population. Rates of HIV infection and viral hepatitis are substantially higher among persons who use drugs than among persons who do not. Opioid use in particular in the United States is at epidemic proportions. This crisis – coupled with limited federal and state resources for drug user health programs and services – has made leveraging the ACA and partnerships with broader health systems and payers even more critical.

NASTAD has been awarded another year of Elton John AIDS Foundation funding to support a learning collaborative that builds off of the findings of the white paper and supports health departments to partner with broader health care systems and payers to increase access to drug user health services. To see more of NASTAD’s drug user health work, including our Statement of Urgency: Addressing the Opioid Epidemic in the United States and Minimizing Harm, Maximizing Health: The Role of Public Health Programs in Drug User Health, please visit our website.

 For questions, please contact Amy Killelea at akillelea@nastad.org

For more information, visit the NASAD Website.....

Cornell Studies Hepatitis C Populations Not Typically Tallied in Survey

New research highlights how government estimates on hepatitis C prevalence in the United States leave out about 1 million people from several groups not regularly included in the tally, say researchers from Cornell University.   

The government estimates are from a 2014 report of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a health assessment from a representative sample of the country’s population, according to an article posted on the university web site. Out of an estimated 3.6 million people who have the hepatitis C virus antibodies, the survey indicates that 2.7 million are currently infected with the virus.  

Results of a study from Weill Cornell Medicine published this month in the journal Hepatology say that a closer analysis of data from various sources revealed that the government estimate excludes six populations, including some that are stigmatized and live on the margins of society. The study authors say that the number of US residents who have antibodies for hepatitis C is probably closer to or exceeding 4.6 million and that 3.5 million are infected

Read more.....