Hepatitis C medicines to cost as low as $6 starting today
Over one in hundred Australian and approximately 230,000 Australians suffer from the deadly Hepatitis C disease.
Starting today, the Hepatitis C medicines will be made available to Australians under the PBS (Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme) through which the price of these drugs will drop from $100,000 to just $6.20 for concessional patients and $37.70 for general patients.
The subsidy is aimed at getting Australia rid of this deadly disease.
"The drugs themselves are fantastic but they are just a tool," Hepatitis Australia CEO Helen Tyrrell told AAP.
"We have got to find the people who will benefit from it, that work is critical to whether we actually reap the benefits of these new treatments ... to achieve elimination of hep C as a public health issue in this country."
Health Minister Sussan Ley said the four medicines had a cure rate of more than 90 per cent and in most cases were taken orally for eight to 12 weeks.
"Australia is one of the first countries in the world to publicly subsidise these cures for every one of our quarter-of-a-million hep C sufferers, no matter what their condition or how they contracted it," she said.
The hepatitis C virus damages the liver, leading to liver scarring (cirrhosis), liver cancer and liver failure, but symptoms may not appear for years while it progresses silently.
About 700 Australians die yearly from complications associated with hepatitis C.
Ms Tyrrell said thousands of people with hep C had eagerly been waiting for March 1, but about a quarter of the estimated 230,000 people with it had not yet been diagnosed.
The general population, as well as GPs, needed to be aware of the risk factors, and those who've ever been exposed to them should be encouraged to be tested for the virus.
"We (also) urge all people who know they are living with hepatitis C to seek a liver check-up and discuss their treatment options with their doctor," she said.
The medicines are Sofosbuvir with ledipasvir (Harvoni); Sofosbuvir (Sovaldi); Daclatasvir (Daklinza); and Ribavirin (Ibavyr).
HEP C RISK FACTORS INCLUDE:
* sharing drug equipment, even if many years ago on only a few occasions
* unsterile tattooing or piercing
* Australian blood transfusion before 1990
* medical or dental treatment in countries with poor infection control
