Minimum target prices for HCV directly acting antivirals

At present combinations of directly-acting antivirals can be used to treat chronic HCV in the majority of treatment-naïve patients. However, mass treatment programmes in developing countries are only feasible if the costs of treatment and laboratory diagnostics are very low. The authors tried to estimate the minimum costs of directly-acting antiviral treatment and associated diagnostic monitoring. They found that the minimum costs for a 12-week course of combination directly-acting antivirals with the most consistent efficacy results were: US$122 per person for sofosbuvir+daclatasvir, US$152 for sofosbuvir+ribavirin, US$192 for sofosbuvir+ledipasvir and US$115 for MK-8742+MK-5172. Diagnostic testing costs worked out at US$90 for genotyping, US$34 for two HCV antigen tests and US$22 for two full blood count/clinical chemistry assays. Therefore the minimum costs of treatment and diagnostics to treat HCV infection were estimated at US$171–360 per-person without genotyping or US$261–450 per-person with genotyping.

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