More than 200 professors, doctors and medical officers attended a conference on new treatments for Hepatitis C, including two new drugs approved by the US government.
More than 200 professors, doctors and medical officers attended a conference on new treatments for Hepatitis C, including two new drugs approved by the US government.
The conference was organised on Friday by Merck Sharp&Dohme Viet Nam and the HCM City Liver and Gall Association.
Prof. Dr. Thiery Polynard, head of the Hepato-Gastroenterology Department at Groupe Hospitalier Pitie-Salpetriere in Paris, discussed new treatments for hepatitis-C patients.
He said that in May the US Food and Drug Administration approved two new drugs Boceprevir and Telaprevir, which are both HCV protease inhibitors. They work by to inhibit hepatitis-C virus (HCV) replication in the body.
Both drugs are meant to supplement the current standard treatment for patients, who previously failed treatment and patients new to treatment for chronic HCV genotype 1.
The new therapy substantially increases success rates compared to standard therapy.
For patients infected with genotype 1 virus, there is a 42 per cent sustained viral response (SVR) after completing the standard therap, while it went up to 70 per cent when they used the new drugs.
However, these drugs are also more expensive.
Representatives of MSD Co. said the company in June reduced prices of medicine for HCV treatment (PegInterferon alfa-2b) in Viet Nam.
MSD collaborated with local heathcare agencies in promoting disease-awareness education and offering training programmes for physicians and medical professionals.
The HCM City Liver and Gall Association has sounded an alarm about Hepatitis-C, saying that more than five per cent of the country's population, or 4.5 million people, are infected, according to association chairman Pham Hoang Phiet.
Dr. Dinh Da Ly Huong from the University of Medicine and Pharmacy said over the past 10 years, the number of patients with decompensated cirrhosis, due to the hepatitis-C virus, had increased more than four times.
Experts estimate that this year, about 500,000 chronic hepatitis-C patients will not respond to treatment.
Complications of cirrhosis and liver cancer are more likely to occur in patients with advanced liver disease.
(Source: VNS)
