Australian government to invest over A$1 billion to eradicate hepatitis C

The Australian government will invest more-than A$1 billion (~$720 million) to give all Australians with hepatitis C access to breakthrough cures that could all but eradicate the deadly and debilitating disease within a generation.

In a “watershed moment” in Australian history, Minister for Health Sussan Ley has announced Australia would become one of the first in the world to publicly subsidize these cures – currently costing patients up to A$100,000 – for the nation’s entire population of hepatitis C sufferers, no matter what their condition or how they contracted it.

Ms Ley said there were about 700 deaths attributable to chronic Hepatitis C infection each year, with thousands more suffering a variety of serious liver diseases and conditions, and today’s announcement was a “game changer. More-than 230,000 Australians are estimated to be currently living with hepatitis C. That’s essentially one in every 100 Australians and they come from all walks of life.”

She continued: “And we are currently seeing around 10,000 additional Australians diagnosed every year. As a result, deaths from primary liver cancer, for which untreated hepatitis C is a major driver, are rising faster than for any other cancer. However, with this announcement there is great hope we can not only halt the spread of this deadly infectious virus, but eradicate it altogether in time.”

Ms Ley said the more-than A$1 billion investment in hepatitis C over the next five years followed a positive recommendation from the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC). It comes on top of the A$620 million in new and amended medicine listings announced in last week’s Mid -Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook – taking the total medicine spend in MYEFO to more-than A$1.6 billion.

Harvoni, Sovaldi, Daklinza and Ibavyr are the drugs to be listed

Ms Ley said this announcement would see the listing of multiple drug combinations to ensure cures for all types of hepatitis C were made available to the entire patient population through the PBS from March 1 2016. The medicines are: sofosbuvir with ledipasvir (Harvoni) and sofosbuvir (Sovaldi) from Gilead Sciences (Nasdaq: GILD); daclatasvir (Daklinza) from Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY); and ribavirin (Ibavyr), from Canada’s Pharmascience.

“This combination of breakthrough cures has a success rate of more-than 90 per cent across the entire Hep C patient population and is faster and has fewer side effects than anything currently available,” Ms Ley said.

Ms Ley said listing the combination of breakthrough medicines on the Australian government’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) would see hepatitis C patients pay just the normal PBS co-payment for these medicines. The PBS co-payment is currently worth A$6.10 for concessional patients and A$37.70 for general patients.