Myths and Mysteries around BIT and coronavirus, page-15

J8, I hear what you’re saying but I think there is still a lot of potential in HCV:

- Unlike HBV, which new infections has reached a plateau in the recent years because of the vaccine, we still do not have any vaccine for HCV. In the US alone, 50.000 people infected with HCV each year, 2.5x the number of HBV.
- You made a very good point that DAA is indeed very effective. In recent study, the effectiveness is up to 95%. But people who failed DAA’s treatment were told to remain calm and were promised that new drugs would come. There are ~85 millions of people infected with HCV worldwide. For example, if everyone is given DAA, a success rate of 95% means that 4.3 millions people are still uncured. We cannot tell those people that “you have a virus that can cause cancer and liver cirrhosis but because DAA is already “very effective” so scientists would rather let you die than try to find a better drug”.
- DAA has side effects and interacts with other medications too. Especially those who already on maintenance drugs for cardiovascular diseases.
- DAA is not cheap. In Australia, thanks to medicare, you can get one prescription for around $40. But in the US, when it’s first introduced in 2013, the cost of a 12 weeks treatment is 120K USD. In the recent years it has been reduced to an average of 60K USD. My friend in Italy said it’s around 40K USD in their country while in Japan they can get it cheaper at around 31K USD.

BIT started researches on HCV very early and now it’s at a very advanced stage. What if BIT can give something cheaper, less side effects and more effective?