Hepatitis C

Coming next from Medicare: the ICD-10 Obmudsman. Billing under the dreaded new International Classification of Diseases-10 (ICD-10) coding system will get a bit less onerous under a deal brokered between Medicare and the American Medical Association.

The amount of money paid for expensive new hepatitis C drug treatments skyrocketed in the first quarter of 2015, according to a report released by Express Scripts.

Most US states appear to be violating federal law by putting restrictions on which Medicaid recipients can get the newer hepatitis C antivirals, a Brown University study found.

Researchers from Hiroshima University have created a system to detect a drug-resistant viral strain mutation in hepatitis C (HCV) cases.

Recent study showered 100 percent sustained virologic response at 12 weeks in patients with hepatitis C genotype 1b who received treatment with an interferon- and ribavirin-free combination drug.

Effective clinical research into the causes and treatments associated with large vessel vasculitis can be a challenge. The rarity of the disease limits the potential for randomized, controlled trials and the paucity of generally accepted outcome measures makes it difficult to assess treatments. A study in The Journal of Rheumatology outlined a concerted effort to tackle both of these challenges.

Results from the Turquoise III trial show an antiviral combo cured patients with chronic hepatitis C genotype 1b infections, according to data to be released June 26 at the International Symposium on Viral Hepatitis and Liver Diseases in Berline, Germany.

As hepatitis C becomes a curable condition in many parts of the world research is also showing the financial benefits of allowing once sick patients to resume their normal lives after treatment.

Global drug sales will reach nearly $1 trillion by 2020, a new report predicts. In 2014 the top sellers were the rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira and the hepatitis C anti-viral Sovaldi.

England's National Health Services has increased its budget for new hepatitis C drugs to a whopping £190 million, amounting to nearly 215 million US dollars (at current exchange rates) and more than triple the amount allotted last year.

As the market for Hepatitis C treatments continues to grow, the American Medical Association is calling for the government and payers to do more to ensure new therapies are affordable.

You see a 48-year-old white man for his annual examination. . The patient is overweight with a body mass index (BMI) of 32. A screening chemistry panel is normal except for an aspartate aminotransferase (AST, formerly SGOT) level of 85 U/L (normal 15-50 U/L) and an alanine aminotransferase (ALT, formerly SGPT) level of 98 U/L (normal 5-50 U/L). He says you are the first doctor he has seen in more than 10 years and does not recall the last time he had a blood test.

Hepatitis C virus screening is a challenge, and strategies must be implemented to make diagnoses and treatment therapies easier, according to a JAMA study.

Merck has joined the competition to develop the next hepatitis C drug with its submission of a New Drug Application to the Food and Drug Administration for a once-daily pill to treat certain genotypes of the liver-damaging virus

Researchers from the University of Michigan say a new model that uses routine laboratory tests and machine-learning methods to better predict hepatitis C progression can be used to guide patients and doctors through important treatment decisions.

Achillion Pharmaceuticals has joined forces with Janssen Pharmaceuticals to develop a short-duration oral regimen to treat chronic hepatitis C, the companies announced.

There are medications which can all but cure hepatitis C but for those patients who have not yet beaten the condition there is research that shows a link to developing cancer.

The FDA says the investigational drug combination of daclatasvir (Daklinza/ Bristol-Myers Squibb) and sofosbuvir (Sovaldi/Gilead ) may now be given to patients who have hepatitis C infections with either advanced cirrhosis or infections that have come back after patients received a liver transplant.

Treating hepatitis C with new antivirals saves lives and-in the long run-money spent on patient care. But some patients and their physicians are learning there are barriers to getting prescriptions approved by patients' insurance carriers.

African Americans are more likely to be infected with the hepatitis C virus than Caucasians. But that does not mean they are more likely to die from the disease, researchers reported at the 2015 Digestive Disease Week conference in Washington, DC.

A relatively higher rate of hepatitis C infection in US adults considered to be part of the baby boom generation is starting to decline, researchers report. The statistical drop started the year after a CDC push for all US adults to get tested.

A recent study found that while most insurers are paying for the new hepatitis C antivirals, disparities exist. More than 20% of patients at the hospital studied who had private insurance were refused their prescriptions for sofosbuvir with simeprevir, the researchers found.

Preventing the replication of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) may be a future reality thanks to an important exploration.

The essential medicines list put out by the World Health Organization (WHO) now includes five new hepatitis C drugs that show great promise in curing the disease in millions of people. However, the WHO also warned financial stumbling blocks could greatly hinder efforts to make treatment equitable throughout the world.

In a continuing effort to curb the spread of hepatitis C among the riskiest populations, government health officials recently held a webinar to discuss links between opioid injection drug use and increased cases of the liver disease.

The authors of a study that explored an association between heart disease and hepatitis C say chronic infection of the virus should be considered a risk factor for developing cardiovascular disease.

The most common blood-borne infection is seeing a spike in cases across the US due to injection drug use (IDU).

With several new antivirals for hepatitis C infection available and more in the pipeline, the need for liver transplantation could drop, making more donor organs available for those who do need them, a Philadelphia team reports.

A pair of studies has demonstrated promising drug regimens for the treatment of HCV/ HIV co infected patients, according to an editorial published in JAMA.

Despite the wealth of choices physicians have in finding drugs to treat hepatitis C infection, two challenges remain in eradicating the disease-price and lack of global screening for the virus.