Price tops 95 percent for experimental hepatitis C cure drug
By Steven ReinbergHealthDay reporter
Thursday, 10 April 2014 HealthDay News)-researchers report the an experimental drug more than 95 percent of patients with hepatitis C has cured, including some of the other treatments failed.
It wins approval from the U.S. food and drug administration, could this new drug, called ABT-450, possibly with other innovative Hepatitis C drugs exist, which costs $1,000 a day.
Nearly 3 million Americans have hepatitis C - a disease that can cause cirrhosis of the liver and cancer.
These newer, more advanced treatments are more compatible and easier to take than interferon, the traditional standard treatment for hepatitis C, researchers say.
"Interferon is no longer necessary to cure hepatitis C," said Dr. Stefan Zeuzem, Professor of medicine at the j.w. Goethe University Clinic in Frankfurt am Main, and Research Director of ABT-450 study.
His research showed pair ABT-450 drug interferon-free "almost all patients with chronic hepatitis C can be cured even if previous treatments were unsuccessful", Zeuzem said.
The report was published online April 10 in the New England Journal of medicine, coinciding with the presentation of the results at the annual meeting of the European Association for the study of the liver in London. The drug trial was funded by the drug manufacturer, AbbVie.
"Hepatitis C is a big, bad problem", said Dr. William Carey, a liver specialist at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.
This new drug represents "one among many breakthroughs in our ability to deal with hepatitis C", Carey said.
An advantage of this treatment is that it a pill given during interferon in weekly infusion. Also said older treatments for a year went on while this new therapy lasts only three months to work, Carey.
Interferon treatment has also serious side effects, such as fatigue and flulike symptoms.
"This is not the only drug combination which is interferon-free, but it's a very promising," he said.
A disadvantage of the therapy is that some pills are taken once per day and some twice, could make it difficult that after the treatment. Carey hopes to simplify the treatment eventually. "It would be great if we could take one or two pills once per day and be done with it?", he said.
Because many people with hepatitis C are asymptomatic, treat the medical community not for whom has agreed.
With these new remedies, this question is easier to answer, said Carey. "If you have a treatment, the this simple, effective and free of side effects, there are fewer and fewer reasons superior to withhold treatment", he stressed.
"The main obstacle is cost," he added.
Whether the new drug like Sovaldi, the $1,000 per day medicines, price is still unknown.
With Sovaldi, the required three-month course costs $90,000, plus other drug expenses and medical care.
Carey said that some insurance companies cover the cost of the drug, while others have denied it.
Costs according to the US Centers for disease control and prevention is even more important given the million baby boomers who are five times more likely infected with hepatitis C as other adults.
"It is more difficult to receive, in the course of time for insurance to cover the costs for these medicines," said Carey. "This is a curable disease."
According to a report by CBS News complaining lawmakers and insurance that Gilead Sciences, the manufacturer of Sovaldi, try "Milk patients desperate." Gilead says that, despite the high price, Sovaldi is cheaper because he "patients heal quickly and eliminated a lengthy and expensive treatment with other medicines."
For this phase 3 study of ABT-450 - Typically the last check for the FDA erforderlichen-- almost 400 patients were randomized to take a placebo or a combination of ABT-450 and others these pills: Ombitasvir, ritonavir, Dasabuvir or Ribavirin. All patients had been treated before, but their diseases looked back or had a poor response or no response to the treatment.
Take the combination of ABT-450, 96.3% of the patients of who responded, the researchers said.
Previous studies showed that even this combination respond to patients who were never treated.
Dr. Marc Siegel, an associate professor of medicine at the NYU Langone Medical Center, New York City, said that the results promising for the millions of people with hepatitis c.
"Hepatitis C diagnosed is," Siegel said.
These new treatments make important it with its high cure rates for the diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C at an early stage to prevent cirrhosis of the liver and liver cancer, he said.
Hepatitis C can through injectable drug use or sexual contact with an infected person be transferred. The U.S. Centers for disease control and prevention recommends one-time screening for those between 1945 and 1965 --born, possibly millions of people who come for the treatment in question.
Copyright © 2014 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Source: Stefan Zeuzem, M.D., Professor, medicine, j.w. Goethe University Hospital, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Marc Siegel, MD, Associate Professor, medicine, NYU Langone Medical Center, New York City; William Carey, m.d., Hepatologist, Cleveland Clinic, Ohio; April 10, 2014, New England Journal of medicine, online
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