Hepatitis C News

In a recent commentary, EASL leadership focused on “micro-elimination” techniques in the fight against hepatitis C virus, explaining that while treatment of HCV with direct-acting antiviral agents is central to the elimination campaign, their high cost confirms the importance of prevention and education about transmission.

Gilead Sciences announced the FDA approval of Epclusa for the treatment of hepatitis C genotypes 1 through 6 in patients coinfected with HIV, according to a press release.

WHO has prequalified the first generic version of sofosbuvir for the treatment of hepatitis C, a development that could improve access to quality-assured generic medicines, according to a press release.

Since its introduction in April 2015, the nation of Georgia’s HCV Elimination Program has shown the potential to rapidly expand HCV care and treatment services, but achieving its 2020 goal of HCV elimination will require improved HCV testing and access to treatment services, according to the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

“Eliminate Hepatitis” is this year’s World Hepatitis Day theme. As a part of WHO’s Global Strategy on Viral Hepatitis, which includes the goal of eliminating hepatitis C and hepatitis B, World Hepatitis Day is designed to promote awareness of hepatitis infection, related risks and treatment options.

The Global Procurement Fund, created by the Center for Disease Analysis Foundation, announced that utilization of their massively discounted hepatitis C treatment negotiations has not yet happened and urged countries with high burden of disease to do so.

As a part of the World Health Organization’s ongoing efforts to promote education and awareness about hepatitis prevention, the organization will launch the “Get the Point: Make Smart Injection Choices” campaign in advance of World Hepatitis Day.

During an earnings conference call today, executives from Gilead Sciences disclosed second quarter earnings and projected pipeline goals with a focus on the company’s hepatitis B, hepatitis C and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis treatments.

Members of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases have issued a strongly worded rebuke of a recent Cochrane review of drugs for the treatment of hepatitis C virus infection.

The last few years have seen a growing force of infectious disease challenges that together pose an unprecedented range of threats to health here in the United States and in countries around the world where Americans travel and conduct business. While outbreaks of Ebola, Zika, SARS and MERS have spread from their places of origin with devastating impacts, rising rates of resistance to antimicrobial drugs threaten the gains of modern medicine at home and globally. New and re-emerging diseases with pandemic potential continue to surface, and diseases that include tuberculosis, once considered all but conquered, have evolved faster than the medicines to control them, to pose new dangers.