Hepatitis C the Nine Billion Dollar target market and the race for new drug treatments
Hepatitis C is one of the most lucrative new markets for drugs in the world.
Motivated by the huge profits Drug companies are pouring resources in to discovering the next big treatment
For Hepatitis C, the standard has been a combination of interferon and ribavirin.
In simple terms, ribavirin is an antiviral medication that stops the virus that causes hepatitis C from spreading. Interferon prevents viral replication in surrounding cells.
Now a score of companies are racing to bring new treatments on stream. Out front are Merck (NYSE:MRK – News) with boceprevir, and a partnership of Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NMS:VRTX) and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ – News) with telaprevir.
Both drugs are protease inhibitors, which prevent a virus from replicating itself. While they treat the same disease, they are different in both results and side effects.
Used on patients who have had no previous treatment, boceprevir and telaprevir beat down the hepatitis C virus to undetectable levels in 66% and 75% of patients respectively
By most counts, the global market for hepatitis C products is now $4 billion a year. According to a report from the commercial analysis firm Research & Markets, that should rise to $8.5 billion by 2016.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/The-Race- … l?x=0&.v=1
These new drugs are taken with existing drugs in a combination of three drugs sometimes known as triple therapy
Details of Open hepatitis C drug trials in New Zealand
Some of these drug trials for drugs like telaprevir have been and are being conducted in New Zealand.
http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?term=hepatitis+c+New+zealand&recr=Open
Although the drugs are expected to get FDA approval next year in America (the most lucrative and largest market for these drugs) they may take several years more to reach New Zealand and be approved / funded by Pharmac.
They will add another pharmaceutical cost to treatment
If you have Hepatitis C genotype one it does improve your odds of successful treatment and maybe a shorter term of treatment.
Come out of the warehouse now ?
BURLINGTON, Mass., Sept. 27 /PRNewswire/ — Decision Resources, one of the world’s leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that the launch of novel therapies for the treatment of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), including Vertex/Johnson & Johnson/Mitsubishi Tanabe’s telaprevir and Merck’s boceprevir, will precipitate several changes in HCV treatment. According to Patient Flow in Hepatitis C Virus, surveyed physicians plan to initiate treatment in at least half of their “warehoused” HCV1 patients one year after novel therapies become available. Patient “warehousing” is a term that has been coined to characterize the phenomenon of HCV patients opting out of treatment with current standard of care in anticipation of new therapies; psychiatric events, adverse events and liver health are top reasons keeping patients away from current therapies.
The report also finds that time from initial diagnosis to treatment initiation will decrease once novel HCV therapies are available. On average, surveyed physicians stated they wait 17 months to initiate treatment in HCV1 treatment-naive patients; this time will decrease to 7 months once novel treatment options are available.
“The arrival of telaprevir and boceprevir will alter more than the drug-treatment rate and treatment initiation timing in HCV,” said Alexandra Makarova, M.D., Ph.D. “Physicians indicate they would increase the capacity of their HCV practice to accommodate the additional patients expected once novel therapies are available.”
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/launch-of-novel-agents-for-the-treatment-of-hepatitis-c-virus-will-precipitate-treatment-of-at-least-half-of-warehoused-patients-103849343.html
Drug survey RECENT TRENDS IN ILLEGAL DRUG USE IN NEW ZEALAND, 2006-2009
Findings from the 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 Illicit Drug Monitoring System
(IDMS)
Scary reading with the growing methamphetamine use, As people inject methamphetamine much more frequently injecting themselves forty or fifty time a day to maintain the high amphetamine psychosis, irrational impulsive behaviour a bad combination for transmission of hepatitis C and other BBV. Many of these new methamphetamine idu people will be new to using intravenous drugs and naive in their safety precautions.
http://www.shore.ac.nz/projects/Final%202009%20IDMS%20report.pdf
Surveillance of HIV and Hepatitis C Prevalence among Attendees of Needle Exchanges throughout New Zealand Chantal Lauzon
Well an interesting read with lots of detail a thesis submitted for the degree of Masters of Public Health at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand another resource for those interested in Hepatitis C and needle exchanges.
“Results
In total, data from 480 respondents were included in the analysis. The majority of
respondents were male (67.3%), of European ethnicity (79.4%) and aged between
35 and 49 years. Average duration of injecting drugs was 17 years. Overall, the
seroprevalence of HIV in this population has remained very low (<1%) and there
has been a significant decline (17.6%) in the seroprevalence of HCV between 2004
and 2009 (p<0.0001). Prevalence of HCV-antibody was associated with older age,
longer duration of injecting, and a history of imprisonment, methadone treatment
and tattooing. There has been a significant increase (20%; p<0.001) in the reported
use of new needles and syringes for every injection.
Conclusions
The decline in HCV seroprevalence in injecting drug users cannot be attributed to
any particular differences in demographic characteristics of survey participants or
to trends in risk behaviours associated with risk of HCV transmission. The
national introduction of the free one-for-one needle and syringe exchange
programme in 2004 has had a large impact on growth in distribution at needle
exchanges. This reduction in economic barriers to safe injection and subsequent
increased access to sterile needles and syringes appears to have had a positive
impact on injecting practice and is possibly a factor behind the decline in HCV
seroprevalence among New Zealand IDUs who use the needle exchange
programme. The 2009 Needle Exchange Blood Borne Virus Serosurvey
contributes to the evidence base supporting the effectiveness of needle exchange
programmes in reducing injecting risk and limiting the spread of HIV and HCV
among IDUs. “
The importance of narrative video
The english Hepatitis C Trust need new case studies to raise awareness in the press. We are always writing new reports, releasing new statistics and …
Well that’s it
Best of Health
www.hcv.org.nz
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hepatitis-C-New-Zealand/99254558387