New hepatitis C drug to be subsidized in Australia

The Australian government today announced another significant step to eliminate hepatitis C from Australia by subsidizing a new drug which can treat all forms of the disease with an expected success rate of 90%.

The drug, Epclusa (sofosbuvir/velpatasvir) from US biotech major Gilead Sciences (Nasdaq: GILD), will be comfort for around 200,000 Australians who face many challenges of living with hepatitis C, according to the Department of Health, which noted that, each year, around 800 Australians will die from hepatitis C infection and our investment in this drug is aimed at reversing this unacceptable statistic.

Without this listing, the cost would be in excess of A$20,000 ($15,870) per treatment. However, the August 1 listing on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) means patients will only pay a maximum of A$38.80 per month for the medicines, with concessional patients paying just A$6.30.

Epclusa is the first of the new direct acting antivirals that can be used to treat people with any genotype of hepatitis C, meaning it can treat all types of the disease. This will make it simpler for doctors to prescribe this breakthrough treatment and will boost uptake rates, particularly for rural and regional patients.

Australia was one of the first countries in the world to subsidize new medicines for all people over the age of 18 who have chronic hepatitis C. A range of these new medicines became available through the PBS from March 1, 2016. Since this time, more than 42,000 people have received a PBS-subsidised medicine to treat chronic hepatitis C.

The Australian government has allocated more than A$1 billion to fund these new medicines through the PBS over the next five years in line with the government’s Fourth National Hepatitis C Strategy.

The Australian government will continue to fund hepatitis B and hepatitis C education activities for health care professionals. In addition, it continues to fund hepatitis B vaccination of all infants through the National Immunization Program (NIP). The hepatitis B infant vaccination program has resulted in more than 96% of 2 year old infants being vaccinated.