MERCK MAKES OUTRAGEOUS CLAIM THAT THEIR HEP C DRUG CAN CURE DRUG ADDICTS

Just when you thought drug companies couldn’t stoop any lower; they come out with claims that their liver disease drug can, in fact, cure intravenous drug use too. I am sure this has nothing to do with that fact that Medicaid is saying “fuck you” to MRK for their $1,000 per day treatment, for the benefit of drug addicts, who aren’t normally covered. Studies show that HALF of intravenous drug users have hep c.

Many states require people with hepatitis C to prove that they abstain from drug use before getting covered through Medicaid, the U.S.’s state-run health program for the poor. In Merck’s study of 301 intravenous drug users, 95 percent of patients treated in the trial were cured of the virus, Merck said Saturday in a statement. In addition, 97 percent of patients took at least 95 percent of their hepatitis C drugs. Patients in the trail were also taking daily medicine to treat opioid addiction.

Intravenous drug users are the “hot core” of people with hepatitis C, according to Eliav Barr, head of infectious diseases at Merck, and few large studies have looked at the effectiveness of new oral therapies in treating them. A U.S. government study found that nearly half of young people who have ever injected narcotics like prescription painkillers or heroin have the virus, which spreads easily through needles.

“These are not-out-of control folks who are strung out on the street,” Barr said by phone on Wednesday. “They’re much more emblematic of people who are IV drug users who are trying to kick the habit.”

State Medicaid programs have in many cases put restrictions on new hepatitis C treatments made by Gilead Sciences Inc. and AbbVie Inc. While the treatments are highly effective, governments have balked at list prices that can exceed $1,000 a day.

In a study published in June examining coverage policies in 42 Medicaid programs, about half required a period of drug abstinence before they’d cover treatment, and 64 percent required urine tests for drugs. Earlier this month the federal government warned states that they may be violating the law if they fail to provide people on Medicaid with the drugs they need for hepatitis C.

“This is going to be that ‘no excuses’ moment — you cannot keep denying people with substance-abuse histories or even active substance abuse access to effective treatment,” Daniel Raymond, policy director for the advocacy group Harm Reduction Coalition, said by phone on Wednesday. “This kind of data is what we’ve been waiting for to say that processes that prohibit coverage of treatment for active drug users is de facto discriminatory.”

 

The fuck out of here. MRK is trying to steal some of GILD and ABBV thunder with this wild eyed claim. Sometimes I wonder if the execs who ordered this ridiculuous study know how fucking retarded they’d look right now.