Making Hepatitis C treatment more affordable

Hepatitis C is a liver ailment, which is caused by the Hepatitis C virus. The virus can impact on both chronic, and acute infection of hepatitis. The disease ranges in severity from low illness to days of serious, and lifetime illness. The hepatitis is a virus, which is blood borne, and most of the cases have common infection by the practice of unsafe injections, improper sterilization of the equipment used for medication, and mostly; the transfusion of the blood products or blood, which is unscreened.

The percentage of death is relatively high in Pakistan due to the lack of sufficient funds in research and development, poor economic conditions, poor hygiene conditions in underdeveloped/ rural areas, and lack of availability of cheap cure to this ailment until very recently. According to a report published by PMRC Specialized Centre of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, in September, 2015, in Pakistan, a total population of 8 million, and a percentage of 4.9, is infected by Hepatitis C. The natural trait of the virus shows that only 15% of the patients clear the hepatitis C virus while remaining percentage develops severe chronic infections, while some of them develop complications that persist lifelong including hepatocellular carcinoma and cirrhosis .

It is also said that 80% of the patients do no exhibit any of the symptoms at all. Relating such symptoms to the current market medical facilities of Pakistan proves the high rate of the liver diseases. It is also due to the low literacy rate of Pakistan, which makes it difficult for any organization/separate body(s) to create awareness amongst the masses, regarding the basic hygiene required to minimize the spread of this virus since, majority of the cases are from lower income/ rural areas.

Strong support of government was required not only to reduce, but to eliminate the chronical and acute liver infections caused by the Hepatitis C virus; on one hand, while making the availability of cheap and sustainable treatment available to the masses on the other. Until very recently, the pharmaceutical regulatory arm of the government of Pakistan aka \'The DRAP\' had allowed only a single organization to import and sell the only cure against this deadly virus, and that too, at a price, which would give the common Pakistani citizen shivers up his spine.

The treatment cost for an average cycle with this exorbitantly priced drug came to around 200,000 rupees, which by all means was a nightmare for people below the poverty line, which are most prone to this menacing ailment. Now, however, the Government of Pakistan, in a very considerate move has allowed nine local pharmaceutical manufacturers to produce this drug in Pakistan at a very reasonable price. The price allowed by the government of Pakistan is around 5000 rupees per pack of 28 tablets. Products like SOFOS (Generic: Sofosbuvir), which is the first oral treatment for Hepatitis C, should reduce the overall cycle cost of Rs 200,000 by almost 80% to around 30,000.

• References

1. Fact Sheet, 2015. Extracted from who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs164/en/
2. Lozano R, Naghavi M, Foreman K, Lim S, Shibuya K, Aboyans V, Abraham J, et al. Global and regional mortality from 235 causes of death for 20 age groups in 1990 and 2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. Lancet 2012;380:2095-2128
3. Sajjad, S. F., Ahmed, W., Arif, A., & Alam, S. E. (2015). Long Term Follow up of Interferon Treated Chronic HCV Patients in Responders and Non-Responders. Pakistan Journal of Medical Research, 54(3), 69.

Hepatitis C