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The Hepatitis C Trust has announced it is considering seeking judicial review of NHS England’s decision to impose a cap on the number of people treated for hepatitis C in England and Wales. Meanwhile, advocates in Australia have won a major victory in the struggle for access to hepatitis C treatment: a federal government decision to fund treatment for everyone with hepatitis C in Australia. Why are two high-income countries so far apart on HCV treatment access?
Lack of ambition in tackling hepatitis C translates directly into higher drug costs, the contrasting Australian and British experiences suggest. Whereas the Australian government is committed to elimination of hepatitis C as a public health problem, the United Kingdom approach is restricted to limiting future medical costs, with little potential impact on future transmission. Modelling by Public Health England and academic groups suggests that targeting treatment to 3,500 people with cirrhosis a year will be sufficient to almost halve the incidence of end-stage liver disease and liver cancer by 2020, but to reduce HCV incidence it will be necessary to treat people who inject drugs with mild fibrosis, as well as people with cirrhosis.
What might be achieved in the United Kingdom – both England and Scotland – by a more ambitious approach to hepatitis C elimination and volume-based pricing agreements – is uncertain, but Australia’s example shows that setting an ambitious target and using government’s monopoly power as the only buyer of medicines can have dramatic effects on access to treatment.
Read this informative article here: http://www.aidsmap.com/Australia-shows-an-alternative-to-rationing-hepatitis-C-treatment/page/3061523/