Pricey Hepatitis Drug a Good Bet in U.S. Prisons, new study shows

New, significantly improved hepatitis C drugs have revolutionized how the disease is treated, but they are also expensive. One such drug, sofosbuvir, costs more than $7,000 a week for 12 weeks of treatment.

Not necessarily, however, says Jeremy Goldhaber-Fiebert, PhD. Working with colleagues including former Stanford graduate student Shan Liu, PhD, Goldhaber-Fiebert developed a model that examines the overall costs and benefits of treating hepatitis C with sofosbuvir rather than the traditional drugs in prisons. Prisoners are more likely than those in the general population to be infected with hepatitis C, a virus that attacks the liver, because it can be transmitted through intravenous drug use and unclean tattoos.

The researchers found that the high upfront cost saves money in later years by reducing the number of liver transplants and other more invasive treatments needed. In accordance with standard practices, this study examined the overall societal cost without accounting for the source of the money. For example, the prison system’s are more likely to spend more money upfront, although savings might be recouped by Medicaid or other private insurers several decades later. From our release:

“Overall, sofosbuvir is cost-effective in this population, though its budgetary impact and affordability present appreciable challenges,” said Goldhaber-Fiebert,who is also a faculty member at Stanford’s Center for Health Policy/Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research, which is part of the university’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.

Goldhaber-Fiebert called hepatitis C a “public health opportunity.”

“Though often not the focus of health-policy research, HCV-infected inmates are a population that may benefit particularly from a highly effective, short-duration

Agencies/Canadajournal