Harvoni approved in Japan

The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) has has approved Harvoni (ledipasvir 90mg/sofosbuvir 400mg) for chronic hepatitis C genotype 1 infection in adults from USA-based biotech giant Gilead Sciences (Nasdaq: GILD).

Japan has one of the highest rates of liver cancer of any industrialized country. Of the more than one million people in Japan chronically infected with HCV, 70%-80% are infected with the genotype 1 strain of the virus. Professor Masashi Mizokami of The Research Center for Hepatitis and Immunology, National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Ichikawa, Japan, said: “Today's approval significantly advances the standard of care for chronic hepatitis C in Japan, as it eliminates the need for interferon and ribavirin, which can be difficult to take and to tolerate, and offers the majority of people with genotype 1 infection to be cured in as little as 12 weeks with a once-daily pill.”

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