title: Interferon-free therapy for hepatitis C, how prepared is Australia for biosimilars?
creator: Lim, David
creator: Hepworth, Julie
creator: Siegel, Evan
creator: van Driel, Mieke
creator: Nissen, Lisa
subject: 160508 Health Policy
subject: 180115 Intellectual Property Law
subject: Health policy
subject: Pharmaceutical policy
subject: Pharmaceuticals
subject: Intellectual property
subject: Patent
description: The Hepatitis C virus (HCV) affects some 150 million people worldwide. However, unlike hepatitis A and B there is no vaccination for HCV and approximately 75% of people exposed to HCV develop chronic hepatitis. In Australia, around 226,700 people live with chronic HCV infection costing the government approximately $252 million per year. Historically, the standard approved/licenced treatment for HCV is pegylated interferon with ribavirin. There are major drawbacks with interferon-based therapy including side effects, long duration of therapy, limited access and affordability. Our previous survey of an at-risk population reported HCV treatment coverage of only 5%. Since April 2013, a new class of interferon-free treatments for chronic HCV is subsidised under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme: boceprevir and telaprevir - estimated to cost the Australian Government in excess of $220 million over five years. Other biologic interferon-free therapeutic agents are scheduled to enter the Australian market. Use of small molecule generic pharmaceuticals has been advocated as a means of public cost savings. However, with the new biologic agents, generics (biosimilars) may not be feasible or straightforward, due to long patent life; marketing exclusivity; and regulatory complexity for these newer products.
publisher: Menzies Centre for Health Policy
date: 2013-10
type: Conference Paper
format: application/pdf
relation: https://eprints.qut.edu.au/62608/2/Pharm_IP_v7.pdf
relation:    Lim, David, Hepworth, Julie, Siegel, Evan, van Driel, Mieke,  & Nissen, Lisa   (2013)   Interferon-free therapy for hepatitis C, how prepared is Australia for biosimilars? In  Emerging Health Policy Research Conference, 14 October 2013, Darlington Centre, University of Sydney, Australia. (In Press)   
identifier: https://eprints.qut.edu.au/62608/
rights: Copyright 2013 The authors
source: Faculty of Health