With cure rates reaching 95%, Hep C drugs perform miracles

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This article was published 28/07/2015 (3874 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brad Mastervick feels like a new man after only eight weeks on a new drug for hepatitis C that is working miracles for patients who have been unable to kick the disease with traditional treatments.

Over the past seven years, Mastervick, 62, had undergone three gruelling regimes as long as 48 weeks on drug cocktails that left him wasted due to their debilitating side effects. Each time, the treatments failed to rid him completely of the virus that was threatening to destroy his liver.

But this spring as the province approved three new hepatitis C treatments for pharmacare coverage, he was fast-tracked to receive a new wonder drug called Harvoni.

And two months later, he’s feeling better than he has in years. And initial tests show him to be free of the infection, giving him new hope for the future.

“My life is changing. I’m having to learn to be well again. That’s how exciting it is. I’m living a life of wellness,” an exuberant Mastervick said Monday.

“My grey beard is starting to sprout brown again and my head is starting to grow more hair again,” he said. “And the grey is getting choked out by more colour in my hair. I think it’s because my body is healing.”

A new generation of Hep C drugs, led by Gilead Sciences’ Harvoni, has achieved cure rates of 95 per cent or more, compared with an average 65 per cent previously. Treatment regimes are much shorter and the side effects are far more manageable.

Hepatitis C is spread through blood-to-blood contact.

Patients who could not tolerate the old drug regimes are flocking to clinics for the new treatments.

Dr. Kelly Kaita, director of the viral hepatitis investigative unit at Health Sciences Centre, said he’s had patients come calling that he hasn’t seen in a decade.

“We’ve probably treated as many patients as we would treat in a year within (the past) six months…” he said Monday.

Patients on Harvoni take one tablet a day for anywhere from eight to 24 weeks. Patients on Holkira take four or more pills daily, but studies have found so far it has a 100 per cent cure rate for the hepatitis C genotype 1b, Kaita said.

The province also added new hepatitis C drugs Sovaldi and Ibavyr to its formulary earlier this year.

How effective are the new treatments?

“There will be some patients who are currently waiting for a (liver) transplant or have very advanced hepatitis C who may now never need a transplant because of these drugs,” Kaita said.

The new pharmaceuticals are very expensive. Treating a single patient costs tens of thousands of dollars.

But Kirk Leavesley, chairman of the Manitoba Hepatitis C Support Community Inc., said liver transplants, long hospital stays and frequent visits to the doctor are also costly.

Meanwhile, the new drugs are transforming lives, he said,

“We really have entered a new era in the fight against hepatitis C globally with these drugs,” he said. “These drugs are nothing short of miraculous to those who have suffered so long with hepatitis C.”

Meanwhile, Manitoba added 54 new drugs to its pharmacare program effective last Wednesday, Health Minister Sharon Blady announced on Monday. Of the 54, 24 are generic medications.

Other new drugs added include: Diacomit, a treatment for epilepsy; Inspra, for the treatment of heart failure; Metadol for the treatment of chronic pain; and Tivicay, for the treatment of HIV.

Pharmacare is a universal comprehensive prescription drug benefit program for Manitobans based on family income. It covers 100 per cent of eligible costs once the income-based deductible is reached.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca