Hepatitis C

People living with hepatitis C and HIV challenge evergreening patents on lifesaving hepatitis C drugs in India

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Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) welcomes two patent oppositions filed by Delhi Network of Positive People (DNP+) before the Indian patent office, challenging additional patent claims by US pharmaceutical corporation-Gilead Sciences for the hepatitis C medicines sofosbuvir and velpatasvir. These oppositions challenge Gilead’s patent applications for the tablet formulation of the fixed-dose combination of … Read more

Why is hepatitis C an invisible emergency in India?

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It is estimated that 71 million people have chronic hepatitis C infection globally and India accounts for approximately 17 percent of the total number of cases recorded. Once in the body, the hepatitis C virus attacks the liver and if left untreated, it can lead to organ failure, cancer, or even death. This World Liver … Read more

MSF’s hepatitis C project in Uttar Pradesh: One year, 1,198 patients

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In January 2017, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontiéres (MSF), in collaboration with the National Health Mission in Uttar Pradesh, started a pilot hepatitis project in Meerut city. Uttar Pradesh is one of the largest Indian states and has an estimated population of more than 200 million people. The free clinic, located at the PL Sharma … Read more

Uttar Pradesh: "Hepatitis C is more than a disease"

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Name : Designation : Sevantee Ghosh, a medical doctor from Kolkata, has been working with MSF’s hepatitis C project in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, since January 2017. In this piece, she looks back on a year of treating hepatitis C. I have been working at the clinic in Meerut from the day it opened.  The assessment … Read more

“When they are diagnosed with HepC, patients think they will die”

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Name : Designation : Dr Muhammad Khawar Aslam, medical doctor for Médecins Sans Frontières in Karachi. Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) started its programme focusing on Hepatitis C in Karachi in April 2015. Pakistan has the second highest prevalence of Hepatitis C in the world, up to 5 percent, just after Egypt. … Read more