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VA, California Panels Urge Costly Hepatitis C Drugs For Sickest Patients
Doctors should consider expensive new hepatitis C drugs for patients with advanced liver disease, including those awaiting transplants, but ask most others to wait for drugs in development, the Department of Veterans Affairs said Wednesday.
Doctors should consider expensive new hepatitis C drugs for patients with advanced liver disease, including those awaiting transplants, but ask most others to wait for drugs in development, the Department of Veterans Affairs said Wednesday.
A California panel made similar recommendations Monday, saying in a report to insurers, providers and consumers that immediate treatment with the new drugs, Sovaldi and Olysio, should be given to those with advanced disease, but could be delayed for others.
Limiting the number of patients treated with the drugs may prove controversial but necessary because the costs per patient can run from $70,000 to $170,000, and there may be too few specialists to handle a sudden influx of patients, according to the report from the California Technology Assessment Forum. An estimated 3 million Americans have hepatitis C.
Read the full story here: http://bit.ly/1eNz5lS
Source: Kaiser Health News
HIV, Hepatitis C Testing Rates Remain Dismal Among Injection Drug Users
April 17th 2020Despite being at an increased risk for HIV and hepatitis C, persons who inject drugs (PWID) are tested at dismal rates for both: just 8.6% and 7.7%, respectively, according to data from 2010 to 2017. PWID who live in rural communities are more likely to face barriers to adequate testing and care for both diseases.
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Dr Rebekah Gee Offers an Inside Look at Louisiana's Subscription Payment Model for HCV Drugs
May 7th 2019We speak with Dr Rebekah Gee, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health about the subscription payment model for hepatitis C virus drugs that the state has entered into with Asegua Therapeutics, a subsidiary of Gilead Sciences.
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