Hepatitis: Drugs

(asked on 18th March 2015) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department and NHS England are taking to accelerate the access of hepatitis C patient to interferon-free medicines; and what estimate he has made of the number of patients who will commence treatment with such medicines in 2015.


Answered by
George Freeman Portrait
George Freeman
This question was answered on 25th March 2015

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is undertaking technology appraisals of several new drugs for the treatment of hepatitis C.

In advance of the NICE guidance, NHS England will be extending access to non-interferon based therapies for some patient groups with hepatitis C. Interferon remains a standard treatment recommended by NICE.

NHS England has advised that it is not able to give an estimate of the number of patients who will commence treatment with these medicines in 2015 at this stage.

Reticulating Splines