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HCV Treatment IS AS Effective For Drug Users / Drug Users Should Have Equal Access to Treatment
 
 
  HCV Treatment Can Be AS effective for IDUs as Others, to prevent HCV transmission & eliminate HCV a strategy is needed to cure all including those with a history of injection drug use. The study below shows unrestricted access without restrictions reduces overall costs, and studies below show SVR & cure rates in patients with a history of injection drug use. This patient population needs support services to successfully treat difficult to treat patients & to eliminate HCV. We have a “cure” for HCV unlike for cancers, heart disease, diabetes etc, where societal treatment costs are overall very costly - for HCV we have a curable disease which could be eliminating globally & in the USA, its a one-time 12 week treatment with cure rates generally 95%+, treatment costs have been reduced 50% over past 2 years so the approved regimens below are a one-time cost of $35k to $40 for a 12-week course of treatment now. Politics prevent the federal US from acting on this, they are complicit with state medicaids in denying unfettered access by imposing severe restrictions to access for all including patients with a history of substance abuse [IDU] who are denied access. Jules Levin, NATAP
 
Urgent action to fight hepatitis C in people who inject drugs in Europe
http://www.natap.org/2016/HCV/072716_02.htm

 
HCV remains a hidden epidemic......The hepatitis C pandemic is a pressing public health threat.....Strategic action at the policy level is urgently needed to increase access to HCV prevention, testing and treatment among PWID, the group at highest risk of HCV infection. Such action has the potential to substantially reduce the number of infected persons, along with the disease burden......Globally, two out of three people who inject drugs (PWID) have HCV infection [8], with rates in European Union countries varying between 14 % and 84 %.....Injecting drug use currently accounts for 80 % of new HCV infections in the European Union with a known transmission route [7]
 
Globally, two out of three people who inject drugs (PWID) have HCV infection [8], with rates in European Union countries varying between 14 % and 84 % [9]. However, HCV remains a hidden epidemic. A pooled analysis of data from studies in Denmark, France, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom estimated that a median of 49 % of HCV-infected PWID were undiagnosed. HCV is transmitted more easily than HIV and globally there are more than three times as many PWID infected with HCV than with HIV
 
UNRESTRICTED MEDICAID ACCESS TO NOVEL HEPATITIS C THERAPIES MAY REDUCE OVERALL COSTS, IMPROVE OUTCOMES - (06/29/16).....Full Access Saves as Much as $11,960 per Patient vs Current Restricted Access...."This cost-effectiveness analysis revealed that for current Medicaid beneficiaries, unrestricted access to hepatitis C treatment is cost saving compared with the current policy restricting treatment to only patients with advanced liver disease
 
Epclusa / Patients on OST-Equally Effective 96% SVR - Efficacy and safety of sofosbuvir/velpatasvir in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection receiving opioid substitution therapy: Analysis of Phase 3 ASTRAL trials - (09/06/16)
 
Harvoni Equally Effective in Patients Receiving Opoid Substitution [OST] AND Illicit Drug Users on OST - Phase 3 ION Trials - (09/02/16)
 
Zepatier - Elbasvir-Grazoprevir to Treat Hepatitis C Virus Infection in Persons Receiving Opioid Agonist Therapy: A Randomized Trial - (08/10/16)
 
Ombitasvir/paritaprevir/r and dasabuvir plus ribavirin in HCV genotype 1-infected patients on methadone or buprenorphine - (07/28/15)
 
New Regimens in Development
 
EASL: High SVR Rates With the Combination of ABT-493 + ABT-530 for 8 Weeks in Non-Cirrhotic Patients With HCV Genotype 1 or 2 Infection - (04/18/16)
 
EASL: High Efficacy of an 8-Week, 3-Drug Regimen of MK-3682/Grazoprevir/MK-8408 in HCV Genotype 1, 2, or 3-Infected Patients: SVR24 Data from the Phase 2 C-CREST 1 and 2 Studies - (04/19/16)
 
EASL: High Efficacy of Sofosbuvir/Velpatasvir/GS-9857 With or Without Ribavirin for 12 Weeks in Direct-Acting Antiviral-Experienced Patients With Genotype 1 HCV Infection - (04/15/16)
 
J&J HCV Update: AL335+ACH3102+Simeprevir Phase 2 Study - (05/06/16)
 
Newest HCV Drugs at EASL - (05/03/16)
 
ABT-493 + ABT-530 at EASL - (05/03/16)
 
Sofosbuvir / Velpatasvir.... + GS-9857 - (05/03/16)
 
Daclatasvir+SOF at EASL 2016 - (05/18/16)
 

 
 
 
 
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