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DNDi announces Pharco partnership to reduce HCV treatment costs in Asia

BARCELONA — In this video perspective from the International Liver Congress 2016, Bernard Pécoul, MD, MPH, founder and executive director of Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative, discusses the launch of a new partnership between DNDi and Pharco Pharmaceuticals that aims to bring hepatitis C viral infection treatment, at a cost of $296, to low- and middle-income patients in certain parts of Asia.

“It will be a game changer,” Pécoul told HCV Next. “Today, we are lucky enough to have a very active treatment that can cure patients in less than 3 months. We need to use it massively in order to prevent all consequences of the disease and be very active in preventing the transmission, because if we reduce the number of infected, we will also be able to prevent the disease.”

According to a press release, DNDi has licensed rights for ravidasvir (Pharco Pharmaceuticals), an NS5A inhibitor currently in the pipeline, in low- and middle-income countries from Presidio Pharmaceuticals. Pharco Pharmaceuticals has agreed to supply DNDi with the combination regimen of Sovaldi (sofosbuvir, Gilead Sciences) and ravidasvir for its clinical studies for $300 per course of treatment. Once approved, Pharco has agreed to set the commercial price at $294 or less per treatment course, the release stated.

DNDi will be launch clinical trials to test the combination treatment regimen in pan-genotypic patient populations in Malaysia and Thailand, pending approval, according to the release. The drug combined with sofosbuvir demonstrated cure rates of up to 100% in Egyptian patients with HCV genotype 4 in a previous phase 3 clinical trial in Egypt, conducted by Pharco.

“We are confident that in a relatively short period of time, the progress made by the science will be available for the most neglected population [of patients with HCV],” Pécoul said.

Disclosure: Pécoul is employed by DNDi.