India to launch national program to control viral hepatitis and aims to negotiate lower drug prices

9 January 2018

Taking a cue from the state governments of Haryana and Punjab, which have negotiated the price of hepatitis C drugs and started free treatment of hepatitis C patients in their jurisdiction, India's health ministry is looking to negotiate the price of the drug for inclusion in a national program. The ministry is in talks with Indian companies which manufacture sofosbuvir on behalf of American biotech giant Gilead Sciences (Nasdaq: GILD), reports The Pharma Letter’s India correspondent.

About 12 million people are reported to be suffering from hepatitis C in the country, six times the number of HIV/AIDS patients.

The health ministry is set to roll out a National Program for the Control of Viral Hepatitis from the 2018-19 financial year. An antiviral treatment that costs anywhere between $63,000 and $94,000 for the full course in the USA and Europe is to be provided free of cost at all government health organizations.

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