Cost/Benefit of Hepatitis C Treatment: It Does Not End with SVR

Excerpt

One of the greatest medical achievements of the past 20 years has been the development of direct-acting, all-oral, interferon-free antiviral therapy for chronic hepatitis C infection, which offers a chance for cure for the 170 million individuals worldwide estimated to have chronic HCV infections. Of the chronically infected, approximately 20–30% eventually develop cirrhosis, and of the cirrhotic, 1–3% develop cancer or decompensation annually, resulting in millions of life years lost. Direct-acting antiviral (DAA) therapy, using drugs that cure the infection (termed sustained virological response (SVR)) in > 95% of those treated with minimal adverse effects with a mere 8–12 weeks of treatment, reduces the likelihood of liver cancer and decompensation by 70–90% in patients with cirrhosis. …