Egyptian-American HCV drug to be available soon

CAIRO – 30 September 2017: “The first Egyptian-American alternative to Harvoni and Magicbuvir Plus for treating patients infected with the Hepatitis C virus (HCV) will be available soon and is safe for children,” Sherif Rashed, a member in the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association said Friday.

Waheed Dous, director of the National Institute of Endemic and Liver Diseases, said that about 1.5 out of 4.5 million people infected with HCV in Egypt, were cured. “The HCV infection drug (Sovaldi) will be regularly provided to relapsed patients, and a large quantity of medicines will be available to those who were found infected with HCV during medical campaigns that took place recently in Upper Egypt.”

"Egypt will become free of HCV this year, and the cost of treatment is less than the American price by one in a thousand. Now we are searching for patients in villages and towns to give them free treatment," Minister of Health and Population Ahmed Rady said on September 16.

Since 2014, Egypt has increased the services provided to eliminate HCV following President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi’s initiative to treat 1 million HCV-infected patients annually. In 2014, a number of Egyptian companies started manufacturing local medications similar to Sovaldi to increase the chances of survival among infected patients by 90 percent.

Although some 399,000 people die each year from HCV, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 95% of patients are cured by anti-viral medicines.