$300 hepatitis C cure as effective as $84,000 regimen?
Trials are underway to evaluate an affordable hepatitis C treatment. So far, the therapy has been shown to be safe and effective, with very high cure rates for patients including hard-to-treat cases. The interim clinical trial results offers hope to the 71 million people living with the disease worldwide.
The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), a not-for-profit organisation, is working with the Egyptian drugmaker Pharco Pharmaceuticals to bring a combination treatment of two hepatitis C tablets, ravidasvir (a new drug) and sofosbuvir (an existing drug), to countries that cannot afford to pay the high prices charged by US companies.
DNDi said 97% of patients were cured after being treated with the combination pill for 12 weeks. Even hard-to-treat cases such as people with HIV or liver cirrhosis showed very high cure rates, of 96% and 97% respectively.
