Any British Columbian suffering from chronic hepatitis C, will now have access to drug treatment regardless of severity, the provincial Ministry of Health announced Tuesday.
The move follows through on a pledge made by the previous BC Liberal government last year to provide drug coverage to anyone in B.C. who needs it beginning in 2018-2019.
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The province also announced that it is adding a new hep C drug to the list of approved treatments under BC PharmaCare.
The national Common Drug Review gave the new medication, sofosbuvir/velpatasvir/voxilaprevir, also known as Vosevi, a positive review in January of this year.
Vosevi was developed specifically for adult patients with hard-to-treat chronic hepatitis C that has resisted treatment from other drugs.
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Along with Vosevi, BC PharmaCare also covers Daklinza, Epclusa, Harvoni, Solvaldi and Zepartier.
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B.C. significantly improved coverage for hepatitis C patients last year, adding four new drugs to the PharmaCare list after B.C. and Ontario led successful national price negotiations with manufacturers.
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But until now, patients would have to go through their doctors to obtain PharmaCare approval for the drugs.
Up to 73,000 people are living with the hep C virus, the health ministry said.
The cost to the health system to pay for treatment of the disease can range from $45,000 to more than $100,000 per patient depending on what drug they use and how their treatment progresses, the ministry added.
Nearly a quarter of people who contract hepatitis C are able to clear the virus on their own; however, if left untreated, it is both communicable and can cause cancer and liver failure.
Recent drug breakthroughs have been hailed as a “game changer,” raising the prospect that the virus could be eradicated completely.
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