Twenty-seven health organisations have published an open letter letter to the Health Minister, Hon. Sussan Ley MP, urging the inclusion of breakthrough hepatitis C cures on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
Read the full media release from Hepatitis Australia
More coverage:
Dear Minister, (Hon. Sussan Ley MP)
Time for New Cures – Time to list new hepatitis C medicines
It is rare that a government has the power to change the course of an epidemic but that is the historic opportunity available to you and your colleagues.
Australia is at a crossroads. Down one path lies escalating rates of liver disease and death. Down the other, there is an opportunity to make hepatitis C a rare condition in our lifetime.
Minister, the organisations which logos appear on this letter acknowledge your commitment to improving the lives of Australians and reimbursing new therapies that treat conditions ranging from cancer to eye disease. As such, we urge you expedite price negotiations and confirm the addition of new breakthrough hepatitis C medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme without delay.
These new treatments cure hepatitis C and represent a lifeline for many people. Yet despite being recommended by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee six months ago, these medicines are still awaiting consideration by the Federal Cabinet.
With exceptionally high cure rates, shorter treatment duration and fewer side-effects than existing therapies, interferon-free medicines hold the key to preventing liver cirrhosis, liver cancer and liver failure – not to mention halting the rising death toll associated with untreated hepatitis C.
As you know, treatment rates remain lamentably low. Only one per cent of the 230,500 Australians living with hepatitis C are treated each year. This puts thousands at risk of progressing to serious liver disease.
Of further concern are reports by liver clinics that hepatitis C treatment rates have plummeted again as more and more people find themselves in a treatment limbo.
Sadly, Australia can no longer regard itself the “lucky country”; not when people with hepatitis C are being cured around the globe – from the United States and Great Britain to Egypt and India. Increasingly, desperate Australians are being forced to travel overseas, or take the risky course of importing medicines because these new therapies remain unaffordable in Australia.
Minister, it’s time for action. It’s time for you to intervene and bring the Department, the pharmaceutical companies and the Cabinet together to deliver the cures for which so many Australians are desperately waiting.
We implore you to embrace a new treatment era, to confirm a PBS listing date and make 2015 a watershed year in the fight against hepatitis C.
Sincerely,
Helen Tyrrell - CEO Hepatitis Australia
24 September 2015
On behalf of the twenty-seven organisations listed below.
Aboriginal Sobriety Group
Anglicare – Tasmania
Australian Federation of AIDS organisations
Australian Hepatology Association
Australian Injecting & Illicit Drug Users League (AIVL)
Australian Research Centre in Sex Health & Society
Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases
Australasian Society for HIV, Viral Hepatitis and Sexual Health Medicine
Centre for Social Research in Health
Gastroenterological Society of Australia including the Australian Liver Association
Haemophilia Foundation Australia
Hepatitis Australia
Hepatitis ACT
Hepatitis NSW
Hepatitis Queensland
Hepatitis SA
Hepatitis Victoria
Hepatitis WA
National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation
National Association of People with HIV Australia
Northern Territory AIDS and Hepatitis Council
Penington Institute
Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity
SHine SA
Tasmanian Council on AIDS, Hepatitis and Related Diseases
Uniting Care Wesley – Port Adelaide
Uniting Communities
