Gilead Canada awards 11 grants to HCV micro-elimination programs

Gilead Sciences Canada awarded a series of HCV Micro-Elimination Grants to 11 organizations focused on identifying individuals with hepatitis C in high-risk hard-to-reach populations throughout Canada and linking them to care, according to a press release.

“We recognize that it will take more than just science to eliminate the burden of HCV on patients, our health system and Canadian society as a whole,” Kennet Brysting, general manager of Gilead Sciences Canada, said in the release. “Together with our grant recipients, we can take collective steps to establish effective HCV micro-elimination strategies and programs right here in Canada that can contribute to the worldwide elimination of HCV. We are already seeing positive results from last year's micro-elimination efforts.”

Areas of interest for outreach include people who inject drugs, economically disadvantaged and homeless people, those coinfected with HIV, immigrants and refugees, formally incarcerated individuals and sex workers.

The organizations and their area of focus are:

LAIR Centre (addiction and substance use)
Cool Aid Community Health Centre (HCV/HIV coinfection)
Community Based Research Centre Society (HCV/HIV coinfection)
St. Michael's Hospital Academic Family Health Team (vulnerable patients within its clinic sites)
Réseau ACCESS Network (people who inject drugs)
Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (indigenous individuals)
Dalhousie Healing Support Fund (substance use)
Dopamine (people who inject drugs)
Centre L'Envolée de Granby (incarcerated individuals)
Street Pact Inc./Pacte de Rue Inc. (people who inject drugs)
CAPAHC – Hepatitis C Multipurpose Assisted Clinic (immigrants)

“We realized that about 40% of our patients with HCV had not accessed life-saving treatment, and that was a wake-up call for us,” Tara Kiran, MD, CCFP, staff physician at St. Michael's Hospital Academic Family Health Team, said in the release. “Our goal now is to cure hepatitis C in our practice. By educating family doctors to treat patients with HCV, we will be able to cure more patients and contribute to the elimination of the disease.”

Edward Tam, MD, FRCP, medical director of LAIR Centre in Vancouver plans to develop a new model of care that would improve hepatitis C screening among clinic patients undergoing opiate agonist therapy for addictions to provide treatment and support in one setting.

“Many prescribers of opiate agonist therapy for people with addiction issues are not familiar with the treatment of HCV, and it is unrealistic to expect that these patients will find their way to a second specialist to access and treat their HCV,” Tam said in the release. “We need to do more to facilitate simultaneous treatment of addictions and HCV at one time and one place. We anticipate that this mandate will prove to be a viable and powerful strategy to advance HCV elimination efforts.”

Reference: www.gilead.com