AbbVie announces Ontario to begin reimbursement for Maviret HCV therapy

AbbVie announced an agreement with the pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance in which Ontario will be first province to reimburse the hepatitis C direct-acting antiviral Maviret on its public formulary as of February 28, 2019, according to a press release.

“After more than 20 years of treating hepatitis C, I am hopeful that soon we will successfully eliminate this virus. But in order to reach this goal in Canada and across the world, we need to work together to test, diagnose and bring these high curative treatments to every individual, regardless of their genotype, fibrosis stage and background,” Magdy Elkhashab, MD, director of the Toronto Liver Center. “As a hepatologist, MAVIRET offers me the opportunity to put my patients on an effective, short duration therapy that has a proven track record.”

Under the agreement, Maviret (Mavyret in the U.S.) will be covered for both treatment-naive and treatment-experienced adult patients with chronic hepatitis C infection regardless of fibrosis stage.

Several recent studies have confirmed that Maviret safely and effectively treats HCV genotypes 1 through 6 within an 8-week course for most patients.

“AbbVie is committed to the World Health Organization's targets and looks forward to working with governments, health care professionals and patient associations in their concerted efforts to achieve HCV elimination in Canada,” Stéphane Lassignardie, general manager of AbbVie Canada, said in the release. “Maviret brings value in order to achieve elimination and all Canadians should have access to innovative and curative therapies.”

Reference: www.abbvie.ca