Gilead has directly cured 1.5 million HCV patients – just another 70 million to go, says Michael Mertens

With the approval of Vosevi (sofosbuvir/velpatasvir/voxilaprevir) in the USA and Europe last month, US biotech giant Gilead Sciences (Nasdaq: GILD) has now brought to market four hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatments, including three single-tablet regimens.

Vosevi, which contains two previously approved drugs – sofosbuvir and velpatasvir – and a new drug, voxilaprevir, has been developed for a relatively small patient population – around 25,000 in Europe, for example.

"We want to highlight that even in resource-limited settings it's possible to treat everybody and think about disease elimination"