Sign One Petition, Save Many Lives! – Great Day SA – KENS5

New 4 WOAI – Local woman petitions for Hepatitis C cure

We want this cure NOW! Save those with Hepatitis C NOW!

This past November 2012, Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) announced the final results from trials conducted with Gilead Sciences for the treatment of hepatitis C (HCV). The results were 100% cure rate for HCV without the use of toxic ribavirin or interferon. In these trials, Bristol Myers-Squibb, using its drug daclatasvir in combination with sofosbuvir from Gilead Sciences, achieved a major milestone: a 100 percent cure rate for the most prevalent types of Hepatitis C. The two companies each own a drug that in combination has cured hepatitis C patients within 12 weeks. The results of the all-oral combination (without ribavirin or interferon) are a huge advance, not only due to the remarkable results, but because the only reported side effects were headache, fatigue, and nausea.

The traditional two-drug chemo-style treatments (ribavirin and interferon) cure only about 40% of people and the side effects are brutal, long-term, and in some cases may be permanent. These side effects can include serious hemolytic anemia, worsening of cardiac disease, memory loss, weight loss, skin rashes, hair loss, muscle or bone pain, diarrhea, and vomiting. Ribavirin also causes birth defects, fetal demise, and also may be carcinogenic.

Physicians for The HCV Cure with Sofosbuvir and Daclatasvir (without toxic ribavirin or interferon)

Quote from Dr. Mark Murphy – Savannah Morning News – February 26 2013:
Hepatitis C patients have been waiting for a treatment regimen like daclatasvir and sofosbuvir for decades. It’s a true rarity in medicine — an honest-to-goodness game-changer, a phenomenally effective regimen for a serious, life-threatening disease that is also safe and well-tolerated.

For reasons that are almost certainly financial in nature, Gilead has refused to do further work on this drug combination with Bristol-Myers Squibb, so there will be no further study of the regimen. With no Phase III trials, that means that the daclatasvir/sofosbuvir combination regimen will likely not be approved for use by the FDA.

Quote from Dr. Paul Thuluvath – Wall Street Journal:
“We had never, ever imagined—even in our wildest dreams—we could treat hepatitis C so quickly, effectively and without serious side effects,” said Paul Thuluvath, a doctor at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore who had six patients test the new treatment. “I think the pharmaceutical companies have a moral responsibility to work together and bring it to market instead of [following] their own vested interests.”

Quote from Dr. Scott Friedman – New York Times:
“The only appropriate motivation should be what is the best and fastest way to get cures, not what is best for the shareholders,” said Dr. Scott Friedman, chief of liver diseases at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, who was not involved in the trial.”

Quote from EASL Secretary General Mark Thursz:
EASL Secretary General Mark Thursz wants to see the two companies work together.
“The combination of daclatasvir and GS-7977 has shown positive results at Phase II. EASL is disappointed that development of this combination has been halted as daclatasvir and GS-7977 promised to deliver a highly effective oral regimen that we hoped would be available to HCV patients soon,” said Thursz.

More than 270,000 people have died since these results were released this past April and there is still no collaboration. How many more will die before Gilead Sciences starts putting human lives before profits?

Act NOW and sign the petition to pressure Gilead Sciences to work with Bristol-Myers on the Phase III drug trials necessary to get the cure to market.