British Columbia’s public drug plan expanded use of four new, costly, hepatitis C drugs on March 21, carrying out a similar decision by Ontario’s public drug plan Feb 28.
But as hepatitis treatment experts cheered this expansion, several decry the possible lack of transparency concerning the costs of those citizen-funded drugs.
The development means medicine is available these days for patients with early-stage fibrosis who’re co-have contracted Aids, or hepatitis B, or who’ve chronic kidney disease. Beginning in 2019, BC covers all patients with hepatitis C, whatever the type or severity.
The brand new generation of direct-acting hepatitis C antivirals operate in three several weeks or fewer, and be capable of obvious herpes in over 95% of patients.
However, the drugs’ list prices vary from $45 000 to more than $100 000 per fully-treated patient, based on the pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance (pCPA), which negotiates drug prices with respect to five federal drug plans and 13 provincial and territorial plans. The Planet Hepatitis Alliance estimates Australia pays $16 000 per patient treated for hepatitis C.
Public paying for prescription medications across Canada elevated 9.2% in 2015 almost two-thirds of this growth was because of the introduction of two hepatitis C drugs (Harvoni and Sovaldi), based on the Canadian Institute for Health Information.
The expanded listing of drugs in BC and Ontario was announced after three drug makers, Gilead Sciences Canada, Merck Canada, and Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada, decided to reduce formerly negotiated prices for Harvoni and Sovaldi, minimizing the price of new additions: Daklinza, Epclusa, Sunvepra and Zepatier. It’s not obvious if other provinces follows BC and Ontario’s result in expand access. An believed 250 000 individuals Canada have hepatitis C.
This agreement helps make the drugs “more affordable,” states pCPA senior manager Imran Al. However, the detailed the agreement are private.
In responses to CMAJ demands filed underneath the federal Use of Information Act, Correctional Service of Canada and Health Canada likewise declined to supply details about the price of the drugs.
Officials in the three drug makers referred CMAJ’s demands for interviews to Innovative Medicines Canada (IMC), an Ottawa-based lobby group for brand-name drug makers.
“Keeping these contracts private enables manufacturers to reduce prices for public plans and also the vulnerable Canadians they serve,” IMC media relations director Sarah Dion-Marquis states.
The secrecy round the public price of hepatitis drugs in Canada concerns some advocates, clinicians and researchers.
Adam Prepare may be the hepatitis program manager in the Canadian Treatment Action Council as well as an executive committee member at Action Hepatitis Canada, someone advocacy group. “While the development in treatment methods are very welcome news,” he states, “the proven fact that the actual costs of those drugs compensated by taxpayers is in the black box can hurt the caliber of health care, and denies transparency in public places health expenses.”
Dr. Morris Sherman, chair from the Canadian Liver Foundation’s board of company directors, and Dr. Jordan Feld, a clinician-researcher in the Toronto Western Hospital Liver Clinic, accept Prepare.
“As a prescriber, it’s vital that you be aware of costs from the drugs,” states Feld. “The pCPA should provide us with a lot more transparency. Prescribers ought to be partners in maximizing the general public good. I worry about understanding what amount of prescriptions minimizes the cost.”
In Halifax, Dr. Lisa Barrett, principal investigator for that Senescence, Aging and Infection and Immunity Laboratory at Dalhousie College, is worried that secret drug cost negotiations are coming up with “a framework for health policy with very little input from medical professionals.Inches
“We shouldn’t allow manufacturers to pressure this degree of secrecy,” states Steven Morgan, director from the College of British Columbia’s Center for Health Services and Policy Research. “We have to raise the amount of discussion about drug prices transparency. At the minimum, clinicians should know once the contracts involve cost-volume reductions.”
Resourse: http://cmajnews.com/2017/04/05/secrecy-on-cost-of-openly-funded-hep-c-treatment-109-5412/
The cost of the curing Hepatitis C – BBC Newsnight
Video COMMENTS:
Carl P: I got my treatment from the Australian source mentioned on the video, is legitimate. What you get is Hepcinat LP made under license by Natco out in India, Sealed containers directly from the pharmacy mailed to you. Also there is travel agencies especialized on medical turism that can organized the trip to india including doctor visit and pharmacy to buy your pills
James T: http://www.alternet.org/personal-health/84000-hep-c-drug-only-1500. he is not alone. There ways to get treated at affordable prices. A legitimate site FixHepC is a start. They are legit and professional. Go get healed!
Janis Berzins: American democracy greed for profiting not for human lives what a shame!!!
Ashish Bagade: You have got to RESPECT AND NOT MOCK India FOR DOING this to Humanity in general. My India is Great India !!!
Zack Barkley: They are expensive because of greed and monopolistic practiced. THe lionshare of R&D was from publicly financed open-source research.. Is it not time for criminal prosecutions for big pharma who price this drug which should cost hundreds instead hundreds of thousands simply because its what people are willing to pay rather than die. What is even more disgusting, is that banks are getting involved to promote "charitable loans" for the costs, published in that ever more degraded sellout magazine Science. The truth is the research that allowed the developement of this drug was by in large publicly financed as only open-source research can produce truly novel medications. The drug companies can make reasonable (although not obscenely lucrative) profits by marketing the drug much more cheaply. If we keep rewarding criminal behavior like this, soon the pharma companies will have so much unmerited wealth, they will not only buy off policiticians and rewrite patent laws to secure their monopoly, they will also ruin and stagnate the scientific development process itself by buying off scientist and creating a system of intellectual feudalism. We need to put an end to the patent system for all life saving medications, and let companies compete on what they do best…marketing, and let universities do what they do best open-source research. There is still plently of money to be made and plenty of people who will be willing to work in pharma to make good but not obscence profits without sacrificing human lives and our technological progress. This is the only way we will promote rapid development and marketing of novel medications into our near future.
abdul shehata: scumbags companies try to make more money at the cost of human lives….\nHumanity needs sincere help more than anything
randy109: My younger sister (55 years old) had Hep C diagnosed for 10+ years and was near death. She had a good Accounting job with quite good Health Insurance. They kept putting her off until she was nearing death before FINALLY giving her the Harvoni for 12 weeks. Well, by the 8th week she didn't have a trace of Hepatitis in her blood tests. She completed the 12 week course of treatment and has been Hep Free for about a year. Still, her liver was SO damaged that she is still on the list for Transplant. In California if you are poor and on Medi-Cal they do not give you the Harvoni course of treatment. Basically you are given the Death Penalty because you are poor. Harvoni is now considered a "cure" but millions of people are doomed because of the high price of the drug course. Frustrating to say the least…
James T: If you are having trouble acquiring the latest low side effect antiviral medications, Direct Acting Antivirals (DAAs), then contact via the web FixHepC. These caring professionals are dedicated to assisting HepC patients. If you need a physician, they work with GP2U, a virtual physician site. You can obtain the DAAs for under $2000.00. Depending on genotype, you can get cured in 12 weeks with a better than 90% cure rate and very few side effects. Best of luck to you all!
Mohammad Sarvar: Now available at very cheap prices in India. Sofosbuvir400mg+Ledipasvir90mg, Daclatasvir 60mg and a new drug launched Sofosbuvir 400mg + Velpatasvir100mg for Hepatitis c medication ( geno type 1,2,3,4,5,6) All types of genotype. This all medicines manufactured from under licensed from GILEAD SCIENSES. Contact: Mobile/Whatsapp: 00917801066611
Thandi M: I am currently doing nursing in Belgium and yes Belgium does stigmatize hep c patients
Jason Ezekiel: how can you place a price like this on human life? its insidious, the effects of Hep C are significant on ones' quality of life (a term not often used around non-terminal patients but is nevertheless appropriate here). Someone like me who has Hep C, but is finding it next to impossible to access treatment, experiences long periods of lethargy, loss of libido, stamina, and energy levels. It all goes straight down the drain, I have been trying to get on one of these treatments for over ten years unsuccessfully and dont have the liquidity, fiscally that is, to be able to access private treatments. Big pharma definitely has some questions to answer, and someone has to make them accountable. If not the governments of the world, who?
Ninii Tread: Oh I forgot about the food industry dammit��
MrAckers75: stop fucking treating these medical tourists then and save a few fucking quid
zhukie: What scaremongering on the part of Virginia Acha, who obviously has monetary ties to Big Pharma (and Gilead by association) as exec director of the BPI. Is she wilfully refusing to acknowledge that the generics have been tested as over 99% pure, and therefore bioidentical for all intents and purposes to the proprietary medication?
frances simmonds: Why don't the NHS buy generic?
