Thursday, January 8, 2015

Afternoon HCV News Ticker: Hepatitis C drugs offer new options

HCV News Ticker 
Good Day Folks, trying to keep warm here in Michigan, the windchill is below 20, baby its cold outside. Here are a few top headlines making news across the web today.

Hepatitis C drugs offer new options
By Stacey Butterfield
The approval of multiple drugs in 2013 and 2014 that are able to cure hepatitis C without the use of interferon has dramatically changed the screening, treatment, and epidemiologic paradigms of the virus. Soon, internists will be involved in this rapidly changing area of health care.
Continue reading...

Hep C Drug Deal Raises Patient-Choice Concerns
By
ED SILVERMAN
Jan. 8, 2015 3:51 p.m. ET
At a time when the rising cost of medicines is causing consternation, an exclusive deal between Express Scripts Holding Co. , the nation’s largest pharmacy-benefits manager, and AbbVie Inc., a big drug maker, over a new hepatitis C treatment is generating concern about the implications for patient choice.

The deal came after the benefits manager spent a year railing about the prices charged by Gilead Sciences Inc., which until now has had a lock on the market. Fresh off FDA approval for its drug, AbbVie last month offered Express Scripts an undisclosed discount off its $84,000 list price. The newest Gilead drug, called Harvoni, costs between $63,000 and $94,500, depending upon the regimen.
Continue reading....

5 Health Care Megatrends That May Prove Costly In 2015
Contributor
Let’s take a look at five health care megatrends from 2014 and consider their implications for 2015 and beyond.
Megatrend 1: Breakthrough Therapies, Gargantuan Prices
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved several new drugs in 2014 for the treatment of hepatitis C, a chronic liver infection. The biopharmaceutical company Gilead introduced two oral medications that eliminate the hepatitis C infection in around 90 percent of patients. With few major side effects, these drugs signaled a major medical advancement in 2014.
Continue reading @ Forbes

Hepatitis C Drug Discount Deals Still Miss Many Patients
Bruce Japsen
Despite recent deals designed to extract discounts from the makers of expensive Hepatitis C pills, there are still large numbers of Americans, particularly the poor covered by Medicaid insurance, that are missing out on lower costs and in some cases can’t access the treatment.
Continue reading @ Forbes

At The Crossroads, Part 8: Fueled By Opioid Abuse, New Hep C Infections Rise
By KRISTIN GOURLAY
In 2014, hundreds of Rhode Islanders died from accidental drug overdoses. Thousands more remain addicted to prescription painkillers and heroin. For those who inject the drugs, there’s another risk: hepatitis C.  In the final story in our series “At the Crossroads,” we meet a team of outreach workers determined to find new infections before it’s too late.

Express Scripts' Miller lays out manifesto to fight sky-high drug prices
FiercePharma | January 7, 2015
It's no secret that Express Scripts Chief Medical Officer Steve Miller is hankering for some changes in the pharma business. But what many may not know, he told PharmExec, is that he's got a four-point solution to fix what he sees as the industry's biggest problems.

Freedom from the Burden of Hepatitis C
Lucinda Porter
Hepatitis C can be a burden. Heck, life with or without hepatitis C isn’t exactly a picnic. Do you ever find yourself having a moment of complete abandon?

Glass Half-Full or Half-Empty on Flu Vaccine asks Loyola Infectious Disease Specialist
Newswise — In baseball, three strikes and you’re out. The most common annual vaccine targets three strains of flu virus. This year, two vaccine strains are spot on and successfully matched. One strain is partially mismatched, but still believed to offer partial coverage for that strain. The current flu vaccine is still in the game and, more importantly, keeping people well and on the playing field, says a Loyola University Medical Center infectious disease specialist.

In case you missed it check out; 
2015 HCV Newsletters: The Price Wars, The Good News and Hope

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