FDA Announces Approval of New Hepatitis C Drug

Difficulties in treating Hepatitis C may be a thing of the past with the FDA’s approval of Mavyret. The drug, produced by AbbVie, is approved to treat patients not suffering from cirrhosis and those for whom other treatments have not worked.

Mavyret will join several other drugs approved to treat Hepatitis C,  giving both physicians and patients greater treatment choices and perhaps decreasing the price of the drugs on the market. The first drug to treat the disease was approved only in 2013. Until then the course of treatment was difficult and lengthy and was not effective in many cases. Even after 2013 Hepatitis was extremely expensive to treat. The cost of a course of a 12 week treatment with Gilead’s breakthrough drug exceeded $94,000. The course of treatment with Mavyret should be closer to $26,000.

An estimated 2.7 million to 3.9 million Americans suffer from Hepatitis C. The disease is often difficult to diagnose until it fully develops over decades, often causing irreparable damage to the liver. This new class of drugs provides a cure in 90 percent of cases in just 12 weeks.

Please click here if you have a question about the drugs you have been taking or a surgery you have had.