Here are six things to know about the initiative:
- Congress provided $1.5 billion in funding to aid the VA’s effort to treat veterans with hepatitis C.
- Out of all the veterans who seek care through the health system, almost 89,000 have hepatitis C but have not received treatment, and another 40,000 could be infected but not diagnosed, according to data from the agency.
- Gilead Sciences hepatitis C treatment Sovaldi carries a list price of $84,000 for a single course of treatment. Analysts predict it will cost the VA $7 billion to treat the veterans, even with a 46 percent discount of the drug’s list price — the average reduction rate reported publicly.
- The VA is treating 1,100 patients a week with the hepatitis C antiviral therapy — double the amount of patients as last year. The agency hopes to hit 2,000 patients a week by the end of the year, David Ross, MD, director of the VA’s HIV, hepatitis, and public health pathogens programs, said.
- The VA is screening all veterans born between 1945 and 1965, who represent more than 75 percent of hepatitis C infections.
- Five medical centers in San Francisco, Ann Arbor, Mich., Richmond, Va., Portland, Ore., and West Haven, Conn., are leading the initiative, providing training and expert advice on hepatitis C throughout the VA.
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