Although chronic diseases are often seen as a synonym of non-communicable conditions, infections such as HIV and HCV are progressively being recognized as chronic diseases as well. The treatment of these chronic viral infections poses similar challenges to other "traditional" NCDs, such as the need for sustainable, affordable, accessible, safe and efficient regimens.
In the past few days, multiple organizations have sounded the alarm for skyrocketing costs from anti-HCV treatment in the US and globally. ExpressScripts, the largest pharmacy benefit management organization in the United States, has issued a report expecting costs from anti-HCV to grow 1,800 percent by 2016. A few drugs - namely the new direct-acting antivirals sofosbuvir (brand name Sovaldi) and simprevir (trade name Olysio) - are responsible for most of the cost. According to a report by Doctors Without Borders/MSF, "Sofosbuvir has been released in the US with a price tag of US$84,000 for
12 weeks’ treatment, which equates to $1,000 per pill".
The costs of these drugs in the global market are also sky-high: the MSF report states that "Simeprevir costs
around $45,000 for 12 weeks’ treatment in Russia and sofosbuvir could
be priced as much as $5,000 in Thailand". The World Health Organization (WHO), together with UNITAID, alerted
for the fact that, due to high costs, HCV treatments
are unlikely to be available in low- and middle-income countries, where a
great proportion of HCV infections are believed to be concentrated,
although most of them are undiagnosed.
HCV, or the chronic infection by the Hepatitis-C virus, can persist for decades before producing symptoms. If left untreated, however, the infection may lead to cirrhosis, liver cancer and liver failure. The WHO has recently published new guidelines for the treatment of this disease, which include the new drugs and can be found here.
