Injections to be replaced with oral treatment
Costs will decrease further as more companies manufacture locally
PHOTO: EXPRESS
PESHAWAR:
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Prevention and Control of Hepatitis Programme has finally decided to launch oral treatment for hepatitis C across the province.
The oral treatment will replace injections and comes as a beacon of hope. It is widely believed the treatment will not only reduce the financial burden on provincial resources but will prove to be more effective.
The initiation
Officials dealing with the programme told The Express Tribune they had entered into negotiations with different companies for a long time since they wanted to replace the older method.
According to the officials, the cost of oral treatment was earlier considered to be higher as compared to injections. They added waiting for reduction in costs took time to make the final launch.
“You can say our dreams have come true since we wanted to introduce tablets at a lower cost,” a senior health official told The Express Tribune.
He said the cost of treating hepatitis C had been reduced to Rs32,000 for the whole course. The health official said it will decrease further since only 14 pharmaceutical companies had currently been given permission to manufacture tablets.
“Once more companies are permitted to manufacture, competition among them will reduce costs further,” he added.
As per the official, the cost for oral treatment was over $80,000 in the United States. He added the Society of Hematology had requested permission for local manufacturing.
Local manufacturing
When asked, K-P Prevention and Control of Hepatitis Programme head Dr Kalimullah said they were sparing no efforts to push for local manufacturing. However, there are many hurdles that still need to be looked into.
He added when the apex court was informed that only the federal government could allow local manufacturing of the cure, it had taken notice of the issue.
“You know, companies offered Rs4,800 as the cost of treatment for one month but now offers from more companies which were willing to manufacture tablets at even lower costs had come,” Kalimullah said.
He added Punjab has signed a contract with a company which will provide them with oral cure at only Rs1,400 per month.
He also said he was shocked when his friends recently told him that foreign countries were importing the cure from Pakistan since there was a huge difference between the cost of production between Pakistan and other countries.
Ensuring impartiality
The programme head said they had not only offered free treatment for K-P residents but also for displaced people from tribal areas and Afghan refugees at 32 centres across the province.
“Sometimes we receive complaints of shortage of medicines since we deal with people from tribal areas as well as Afghan refugees, but I have issued clear directions that treatment was for everyone and not for a select few,” Kalimullah said.
He maintained public must know the diagnosis and treatment was free. “Currently, 20,000 people were registered with the programme and 11,900 were being provided medicines,” he said.
The graft body head said the number of unregistered people was higher since a survey conducted in 2008 said 5% people in K-P were suffering from hepatitis C.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 30th, 2016.
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Prevention and Control of Hepatitis Programme has finally decided to launch oral treatment for hepatitis C across the province.
The oral treatment will replace injections and comes as a beacon of hope. It is widely believed the treatment will not only reduce the financial burden on provincial resources but will prove to be more effective.
The initiation
Officials dealing with the programme told The Express Tribune they had entered into negotiations with different companies for a long time since they wanted to replace the older method.
According to the officials, the cost of oral treatment was earlier considered to be higher as compared to injections. They added waiting for reduction in costs took time to make the final launch.
“You can say our dreams have come true since we wanted to introduce tablets at a lower cost,” a senior health official told The Express Tribune.
He said the cost of treating hepatitis C had been reduced to Rs32,000 for the whole course. The health official said it will decrease further since only 14 pharmaceutical companies had currently been given permission to manufacture tablets.
“Once more companies are permitted to manufacture, competition among them will reduce costs further,” he added.
As per the official, the cost for oral treatment was over $80,000 in the United States. He added the Society of Hematology had requested permission for local manufacturing.
Local manufacturing
When asked, K-P Prevention and Control of Hepatitis Programme head Dr Kalimullah said they were sparing no efforts to push for local manufacturing. However, there are many hurdles that still need to be looked into.
He added when the apex court was informed that only the federal government could allow local manufacturing of the cure, it had taken notice of the issue.
“You know, companies offered Rs4,800 as the cost of treatment for one month but now offers from more companies which were willing to manufacture tablets at even lower costs had come,” Kalimullah said.
He added Punjab has signed a contract with a company which will provide them with oral cure at only Rs1,400 per month.
He also said he was shocked when his friends recently told him that foreign countries were importing the cure from Pakistan since there was a huge difference between the cost of production between Pakistan and other countries.
Ensuring impartiality
The programme head said they had not only offered free treatment for K-P residents but also for displaced people from tribal areas and Afghan refugees at 32 centres across the province.
“Sometimes we receive complaints of shortage of medicines since we deal with people from tribal areas as well as Afghan refugees, but I have issued clear directions that treatment was for everyone and not for a select few,” Kalimullah said.
He maintained public must know the diagnosis and treatment was free. “Currently, 20,000 people were registered with the programme and 11,900 were being provided medicines,” he said.
The graft body head said the number of unregistered people was higher since a survey conducted in 2008 said 5% people in K-P were suffering from hepatitis C.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 30th, 2016.