We call on the Australian Minister for Health, the Hon Sussan Ley MP, to take urgent action to expedite the approval of new drugs for hepatitis C, including sofosbuvir, that can cure up to 90-95% of people in just 12 weeks.  We need these new and rapidly evolving treatments to be listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) without delay so that the 230,000 Australians living with hepatitis C can access a cure for this insidious virus.

Hepatitis C infection is now the leading cause of liver cancer in Australia. Without access to these new treatments, Phillipa, Len , Opi, Glenn, and Jane (from the campaign video) and 230,000 Australians just like them who live with hepatitis C are at risk of developing cirrhosis of the liver or liver cancer or may end up on the already over-stretched transplant waiting list. 

Tragically, 630 Australians died last year as a result of hepatitis C. Even worse, without significant increases in the number of people undergoing treatment, this figure is expected to continue rising for years, and even decades, into the future.

Current treatment regimens require at least 24 weeks of treatment and carry an often debilitating range of side effects including:  depression, mood swings, anaemia, skin rashes, loss of hair and weight loss.  Many people are unable to work during treatment, often for months. The chance of clearing the virus and achieving a permanent cure on existing treatments are significantly lower. Like many, Phillipa, Opi and Len have tried every other treatment available for their hepatitis C without success – the virus just comes back.

Others are unable to take the current treatments at all because of adverse reactions.  Doctors prevented Jane from taking the existing treatment as she was at high risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis if she took it.   Some are suffering right now with serious liver disease and the prospect of a painful death from cirrhosis or liver cancer. Others like Glenn have been waiting years for a more tolerable treatment to come along.   

The good news is that the first of a new wave of treatments, sofosbuvir (Sovaldi), has already been approved for use by the Therapeutic Goods Administration and is in use in other parts of the world including USA, Canada and Europe, while licensing agreements have recently been signed to provide it to 91 developing countries around the world.  More than 117,000 patients in these countries have been treated with sofosbuvir since December 2013. Other new treatments for hepatitis C have also either recently been approved, or are in the process of being approved, in various parts of the world.   

But the bad news – and it is a major setback for people who have been waiting for their chance of a cure – is that sofosbuvir was rejected by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee in July 2014, and it is now unclear how long Australians will be forced to wait for their chance at a cure, with the longer the delay the worse the potential impact on the health of those waiting.

It is also unclear whether, if/when these new drugs are finally approved in Australia, they will have conditions imposed on their use restricting access only to those who have already developed cirrhosis. It makes no sense whatsoever to tell people to wait until they get sick before they can be treated for a potentially lethal illness – a situation that would not be acceptable for other health conditions, and is not acceptable for hepatitis C. Such restrictions also ignore the fact that there are already significant barriers preventing many people from accessing treatment in the first place.

With proven new cures now available in most comparable countries, we call on the Australian Government to take urgent action to ensure that sofosbuvir, and other new drugs, are listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme without further delay, and without additional regulatory barriers, so that every Australian living with hepatitis C, including Phillipa, Len, Glenn, Opi and Jane and 230,000 others, can access a cure as quickly as possible.