Too expensive treatments. 24 associations sounded the alarm a week after the submission of a report to the Minister of Health pleading for greater state investmentin the fight against hepatitis.
This time the emphasis is not on the screening and vaccination policy, but on hepatitis C treatment. Their prohibitive costswould in fact prevent the sick from being treated. In an open letter, the associations warn against the risk of discrimination that can accompany the arrival of new treatments against the disease.
The new class of treatment, direct-acting antivirals (DAAs), including Sofosbuvir from the American company Gilead, gives the 200,000 patients in France a hope of a cure from this viral disease which can cause cirrhosis and liver cancer. .
Problem, this therapeutic revolution has a very high cost, which excludes the care of a large number of patients.
A Sofosbuvir tablet is billed for 1,000 dollars in the United States, or 84,000 dollars (approximately 60,000 euros) for the 12 weeks of treatment recommended. In France, Sofosbuvir is available at a cost of 56,000 euros (666 euros per tablet) for a 12-week treatment.
Following in the footsteps of Doctors of the world last March, several associations (including Aides, Médecins du Monde (MdM) and Sos Hépatites) speak out with one voice against these exorbitant costs. If the new treatments are much more effective and with much less side effects, their cost makes them fear “a two-tier treatment”. “This price (…) could set a dangerous precedent by not basing the delivery of vital drugs on the real health needs of people”, but according to “non-medical criteria: lifestyle, administrative or socio-economic situation of the people affected “, worry the associations.
A fair price
They ask for state intervention to “demand a fair price from laboratories”. The State must “play its role of regulator with the industrialists in order to lower the prices and to guarantee the access to these new molecules for at least 80,000 people suffering from chronic hepatitis C.”
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