Pathways to Ensure Affordable Hepatitis C treatment: A Case Study of Pakistan

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared hepatitis as a public health threat and designed a Global Health Sector Strategy (GHSS) to eradicate hepatitis (up to 90% reduction in incidents and 65% reduction in mortality) till 2030. The introduction of Direct Acting Antiviral (DAAs) has revolutionized the treatment of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) with a cure rate of more than 95%. The availability of DAAs has increased in recent years. However, still, millions of patients in middle and upper-middle-income countries have not started treatment, and the reason, in most cases, is unaffordability. Pakistan is providing the lowest price of HCV treatment in the world. In 2019, the WHO surveyed 12 low- and  appreciated the efforts of Pakistan to ensure affordable HCV treatment for its people. This research highlights the efforts and strategies adopted by Pakistan to control the price and to scale up the treatment for all. This research provides ways for countries still facing the affordability issue to access HCV treatment for their patients. The methodology applied for this research is primarily analytical and bears the qualitative aspect of the issue. This research recommends a need to ensure affordable treatment for all and the case study of Pakistan to control the prices of HCV treatment is a paradigm for other countries.