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FIND, a global non-profit organisation, has tied up with Cipla to increase the penetration of diagnostic and treatment systems for Hepatitis C in the country.
It is estimated that over 12 million people in India are living with the deadly blood-borne viral infection that often results in fatality, due to liver diseases such as cirrhosis or cancer.
In December 2015, Cipla launched generic tablets for the treatment of Hepatitis C that cost a fraction of the price of existing medicines. The Cipla drug, Hepcvir-L, which is the generic version of Gilead Science Inc’s Harvoni tablets, is priced at ₹25,000 a bottle of 28 tablets.
A 12-week treatment, therefore, comes to about ₹75,000. In comparison, Gilead’s Harvoni was priced upwards of $75,000 or over ₹50,00,000 for the entire course of treatment.
Cipla, along with five other Indian pharmaceutical companies, had signed a licensing agreement with Gilead in 2014 to manufacture the generic version of the drug. Denis Broun, Head of Government Affairs at Cipla, said, “As prices (of the treatment) keep decreasing, several States have started to finance the treatment of Hepatitis C, which will make it available to low-income patients.”
Focus of partnershipThe new partnership between FIND and Cipla focuses on improving the sensitivity of diagnostic tests for Hepatitis C virus, and helping scale-up treatment for the viral infection.
Existing diagnostic tests are neither fast nor economic, given that they are often at least a two-step process. FIND estimates that it takes over $100 (over ₹6,500) to diagnose a single case currently.
FIND and Cipla, along with academic institutions and the government, are looking to address this problem.
UNITAID, a global health initiative working under the umbrella of UN’s World Health Organisation (WHO), is also gearing up to sign a grant agreement with FIND with the objective of increasing diagnostic and treatment access for Hepatitis C in eight countries including India.
Need for accessSpeaking to BusinessLine , Lelio Marmora, Executive Director of UNITAID, said that increasingly more and more patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) were getting hepatitis C and of these patients, more were dying from hepatitis C than the former, making it imperative that treatment for hepatitis C was made more accessible.
Marmora did not disclose the value of the grant, which was being negotiated with FIND, but said it would be worth several million dollars.
“The proposed project will work to obtain regulatory approval for new, simplified and high-quality HCV diagnostic tests, secure preferential pricing agreements with test suppliers, and incorporate new HCV tests in existing HIV programmes in order to begin scaling up access to HCV diagnosis and treatment among one of the most vulnerable populations,” a statement by FIND said about the proposed UNITAID project.
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