The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention state that America has 2.7 to 3.9 minion people who have hepatitis C and if they don’t get treatment, they will get liver failure or liver cancer, ending with liver transfer or death. The disease is caused by a slow developing and asymptomatic virus, until it starts causing serious damage.
The FDA has approved a drug that will treat all forms of hepatitis C in only 8 weeks. There’s a pill combination which is provided by AbbVie Inc. and will be okay to administer to hepatitis C patients who don’t suffer from cirrhosis or to patients who didn’t respond to a previous Hepatitis C treatment.
AbbVie, Merck & Co and Gilead Sciences Inc. will have a total of 7 drugs on the market and will let doctors have enough options of treatment. The new drug approved by the FDA is called Mavyret.
The hepatitis C treatment implied a yearlong full of shots and pills with side effects such as flu, and half of the patients didn’t even get cured. At the end of 2013 Gilead Sciences Inc. made a range of pills which cured 90% of its patients in 12 weeks.
Insurance was very difficult to be paid, a treatment with their second drug, Harvoni, was up to $ 94,500.
Mavyret, the drug from AbbVie will come at a price which without insurance will cost $ 26,000 for a 8 weeks’ treatment, a 12 weeks’ treatment will be $ 39,600 and a 12 weeks’ treatment will be $ 52,800. These prices bring the new treatment below the others which are approved by the FDA. The company will target to be approved by Medicare, Medicaid and the Veterans Administration on getting coverage.
The market for Mavyret will depend on how the company plans their discounts and offers. This drug from AbbVie Inc. can treat all 6 forms of hepatitis C, such as Epclusa from Gilead Sciences Inc. Other drugs which appeared earlier could only target one or few types of hepatitis C or could be used in certain stages of hepatitis C.
The tests made for Mavyret on 2,300 adult patients, resulted with a positive reaction, curing 97.5 % patients who didn’t suffer from cirrhosis, in a 8 weeks’ time. 98% of the patients who suffered from kidney damage were cured in 12 weeks of treatment.
The Mavyret treatment has 2 medicines – glecaprevir and pibrentasvir which are contained in 3 pills that have to be taken once a day, together. There are some side effects which include headache, fatigue, and nausea. There’s a problem with patients who had been previously infected with hepatitis B, because this treatment may reactivate the virus.
