Australia: Government refuses subsidy for hepatitis C medication, Sovaldi

Government refuses subsidy for hepatitis C medication, Sovaldi

MORE than 630 Aussies are dying from liver failure caused by hepatitis C each year but a government committee has rejected an $84,000 treatment that could cure them.

And it’s possible the residents of Fiji could access the breakthrough drug before Australian patients.

Breakthrough drug Sovaldi could see the scourge of hepatitis C - currently afflicting 230,000 Australians - eventually wiped out because it cures the disease and prevents it from being passed on.

Around a third of those on the nation’s liver transplant waiting list have hepatitis C and the treatment would free up those organs for others.

However, the Government’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee has rejected the medicine for subsidy because it says it too expensive and “would have a high financial impact on the health budget”.

A new treatment for hepatitis C - which does not have to be used in conjunction with the side-effect-prone interferon treatment - is likely to be available soon.

The PBAC says “patients are most likely waiting for the availability of interferon-free regiments”.

The medicine, which retails for $1000 per pill in the United States, is expected to be offered cheaper to Australia but the size of the population that needs to be treated makes it expensive.

It could cost close between $1.3 billion and $2 billion just to treat the people who already have the disease.

Gilead, the pharmaceutical company that makes the drug, is poised to allow licences for cheaper generic versions of the medicine for use in India and Fiji where they can’t afford the price being asked in the developed world.

Hepatitis Australia chief executive Helen Tyrrell says “there is a likelihood that Fiji will have access to the drug before Australia”.

Professor Alex Thompson, director of gastroenterology at St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne says Sovaldi is a significant advance on current treatments.

“This disease could become rare or non-existent, you could be talking about eradication,” Dr Thompson said.

“This is a game changing medicine; it’s transforming health care, it’s life saving and we need to make these drugs available, there is no question,” he said.

Current treatments have cure rates of only 70-80 per cent compared to the 90 per cent cure rate for Sovaldi.

Sovaldi has a treatment time of just 12 weeks while current treatments using interferon can take up to 44 weeks.

Current treatments which include the antiviral drug interferon also have significant side effects including brain fogginess, hair loss and auto-immune problems.

Some people can’t use interferon, others stop because of the side effects and just 2,500 Australians seek treatment every year.

Liver failure caused by hepatitis C currently costs the health system $100 million a year and it will become even more expensive as people who contracted hepatitis C 30-40 years ago progress to liver failure

“If you have a cure for a condition like hepatitis C it is inhumane not to make it available,” says Helen Tyrrell.

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