Some 250 seriously ill patients with hepatitis C are to begin receiving a life-saving new treatment after a six-month delay caused by bureaucratic red tape.
The first group of patients with advanced liver disease who have been approved will be treated at one of 10 centres across the State in the coming weeks. Virtually all are expected to be “cured” of the disease following a 12-week programme, which is costing between €45,000 and €55,000 per patient.
Last month, doctors warned that patients were dying because of the failure of the Government to roll out a national treatment programme, even after negotiations with drug companies had ended. Other patients were paying privately for the treatment because of the absence of State support.
The Health Service Executive has now told specialists funding is being released and that it expects to advertise shortly for a national clinical lead in hepatitis. An advisory group on the disease will also be appointed, according to Prof Suzanne Norris, hepatologist at St James's Hospital and chairwoman of the Irish Hepatitis C Outcomes Research Network.
Prof Norris warmly welcomed the decision to release the €30 million funding promised last year and said work had already started on preparing patients.
The funding was announced last November but has taken until now to be available following discussions between the HSE and Department of Health.
Hold-up
“I don’t know what the hold-up was and I don’t understand why it has taken until May for this to happen, but this is undoubtedly good news,” Prof Norris said.
The revolutionary hepatitis C combination treatments can cure about 96 per cent of patients within three months.
The HSE National Service Plan for 2015 provided €30 million to begin the phased rollout of the treatment programme. More than 100 of the most seriously ill hepatitis C patients, those with advanced liver failure, accessed the programme and have been cured. However, funding for remaining patients was not released, even though negotiations with four manufacturers had finished.
Some patients with hepatitis C got the disease from infected blood products supplied by the State, but 80 per cent fell ill through intravenous drug use.
New research by scientists at St James’s Hospital shows that drug-using hepatitis C patients adhere just as well to treatment regimes as the rest of the population. After five years, the re-infection rate was found to be 3.7 per cent.
Compelling evidence
“People who inject drugs ‘stay the distance’ in terms of treatment, so there is compelling evidence now to show drug users can be successfully treated and that doing so is an investment that yields enormous benefits,” Prof Norris said.
The success of the new treatment in ridding more than 95 per cent of patients of the disease has raised the prospect of eradicating hepatitis C.
The cost of the treatment is placing a strain on many national health budgets and the makers of the drugs are coming under international pressure to release patents or reduce prices.
