CAIRO: New Hepatitis C medicine Harvoni, scheduled to hit Egyptian markets in December, is currently being experimented on 200 patients with advanced liver fibrosis at four liver centers, Youm7 reported Tuesday.
Harvoni is one of three imported complex drugs that form a new treatment regimen, in what the Ministry of Health dubbed as “second generation of treatment” of hepatitis C. The other two medicines are Qurevo and Daklinza; they are expected to be available for patients in November.
The variety of medications of the blood-borne disease, which records high rate of infection in Egypt according to official numbers, is praised by doctors as “advantage” to meet different patients’ cases.
Doctors will test the new generation of medicines on patients with advanced liver fibrosis as the treatment using other registered drugs like: Interferon, Ribavirin and the Sovaldi “was not useful for them,” Gamal Esmat, a member of the National Committee to Combat Hepatitis viruses, told Youm7.
Hepatitis C patients in Egypt have been using a new American drug called Sovaldi since 2014, after the country signed a deal with the manufacturing company Gilead Sciences that provided Egypt with the medication at a 99 percent discount. Cairo has been subsidizing much of the remaining costs to provide treatment to citizens.