Tens of thousands should benefit from groundbreaking hepatitis C cures
We need to increase the number treated and cured’ say medical experts as drugs are made available in Scotland ahead of NICE guidance
A panel of the UK’s leading experts have today published the first UK guidelines on using two revolutionary new treatments for hepatitis C. The consensus comes several months before NICE conclude their deliberations on whether to make the drugs accessible free on the NHS but signal their introduction on the NHS in Scotland.
These drugs are at the forefront of a new wave of cures for the disease, the cause of as many as a million deaths worldwide each year. The new guidelines, published in the Journal of Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics, recommend increased efforts in the battle against hepatitis C and stress the life-saving potential of the new generation of drugs: ‘in order to prevent the predicted increase in deaths from liver failure and hepatocellular carcinoma … we need to continue to increase the number of patients treated and cured.’
The committee’s consensus that the drugs should be available to people who have not yet tried treatment as well as to people whose previous treatment has not been successful has been particularly welcomed by patients and professionals.
“These new drugs represent a major therapeutic advance, with a significant increase in the chance of cure for many patients” said Dr. John Dillon, consultant hepatologist and gastroenterologist at NHS Tayside and a collaborating author of the guidelines commented. “The challenge for healthcare professionals and health boards is to identify the funding for them without reducing the numbers of patients we are treating and curing”
“We are delighted with these guidelines. They are very good news for patients and this approach offers unprecedented hope to tens of thousands of people in the UK with genotype 1 hepatitis C, the strain of the virus until now most difficult to cure,” added Charles Gore, Chief Executive of the UK’s Hepatitis C Trust and President of the World Hepatitis Alliance, the global voice of patient organisations.
“With these guidelines in place and positive opinions from the SMC we now urge commissioners to make these drugs available to patients immediately. With treatments such as these offering such clear improvements in efficacy there is no need to wait until NICE issues guidance in the summer. Patients urgently need these drugs. Why should people in England and Wales have to wait while those in Scotland can access them now?”
Source: The Hepatitis C Trust press release
