News
NHS ‘WORLD LEADING DEAL’
TO HELP ELIMINATE HEP C
THE NHS WILL BE ABLE TO ‘FIND AND CURE TENS OF
THOUSANDS’ more people with hepatitis C as part of a
landmark deal with three drug companies, it has
announced. The deal will see the NHS work with Gilead
Sciences, AbbVie and Merck Sharp and Dohme (MSD) to
proactively identify and treat people who may be
unaware they have the virus.
More than 30,000 people have already been treated
with effective new hep C drugs in recent years, but the
deal will see the companies provide them at the ‘best
price for the NHS and taxpayers’ as well as launch
initiatives to find and test potential patients
and treat those who need it. Reducing health
inequalities is a key part of the new NHS
long term plan (DDN, February, page 5), and
the deal will help provide services to isolated
and hard-to-reach communities such as the
homeless, those with mental health issues
and other high-risk groups, says the NHS.
‘The Hepatitis C Trust is delighted with
this development – 69 per cent of people
who have the virus are currently undiagnosed
so the funding in the deal to help find those
with hepatitis C and support them into
treatment is groundbreaking,’ said Hepatitis C
Trust chief executive Rachel Halford.
‘We believe this deal offers a unique
opportunity for all stakeholders – patient
organisations, pharmaceutical companies,
clinicians, prison healthcare and drug misuse
services – to work together to reach all those affected. By
making sure we reach the most marginalised and hardest
to engage we will ensure that no one is left behind and
stop unnecessary deaths.’
It was ‘not often that the opportunity arises to
completely eradicate a disease, but now the NHS is
taking practical action to achieve exactly that,’ added
NHS chief executive Simon Stevens. ‘The NHS’s
sophisticated and unashamedly rigorous negotiation on
behalf of both patients and taxpayers means we’ve now
been able to strike affordable deals with our life
sciences partners to save many more lives and
meaningfully cut health inequalities’.
Deaths from hepatitis C related liver disease fell by 16
per cent between 2015 and 2017, from 380 to 319,
according to the latest figures from Public Health England
(PHE). While this puts England ahead of the World Health
Organization’s (WHO) target of reducing deaths by 10 per
cent by 2020, around 113,000 people in England are
estimated to be living with chronic hep C, with up to
79,000 of them undiagnosed. Improved access to new
treatments has also led to a fall in the number of people
needing liver transplants, however, with a 53 per cent
‘This deal
offers a
unique
opportunity
for all
stakeholders’
Rachel halfoRd
drop to a ten-year low of just 63. The new treatments
have a cure rate of around 95 per cent, says PHE.
Injecting drug use continues to be the most important
risk factor for infection, being ‘cited as the risk in around
90 per cent of all laboratory reports where risk factors
have been disclosed’. However, transmission rates among
‘recent initiates’ to injecting drug use remain relatively
stable, states PHE, with infection prevalence standing at
23 per cent in 2017 compared to 20 per cent in 2011.
NHS long term plan at www.longtermplan.nhs.uk
Hepatitis C in England 2019: working to eliminate
hepatitis C as a major public health threat at www.gov.uk
PRISON PRIORITIES
A NEW PRISON DRUGS STRATEGY has been
published by the Ministry of Justice,
outlining a ‘co-ordinated response’ to deal
with record levels of drug-related violence
and with the objectives of restricting supply,
reducing demand and building recovery.
Developing ‘more meaningful regimes’,
providing constructive ways for prisoners to
spend their time and working closely with
health and justice partners will help achieve
the last two, the strategy states.
4 | drinkanddrugsnews | May 2019
While the document was a ‘good start’, it
was important to ensure that the ‘people who
can make it work are empowered to deliver
it’, said Phoenix Futures chief executive Karen
Biggs. ‘Until we as a society accept there are
vulnerable people in prison and they deserve
the very best care, support and treatment
services, I fear we will still be struggling to
make the most of the opportunity for
rehabilitation that prison offers.’ National
prison drugs strategy at www.gov.uk
CHEMIST CHECKS
ONLINE PHARMACIES will need to have
‘robust processes’ in place to carry out
identity checks and prevent multiple orders
to the same address or using the same
payment details, says updated guidance
from the General Pharmaceutical Council
(GPhC). Additional safeguards will also need
to be in place for any medicines liable to
‘abuse, overuse or misuse’ such as opiates,
sedatives, pregabalin or gabapentin.
‘We support pharmacy services being
provided in innovative ways, including
online, as long as the services are safe and
effective for people,’ said GPhC chief
executive Duncan Rudkin. ‘But providing
pharmacy services online carries particular
risks which need to be successfully
managed. People can be put at serious risk if
they are able to obtain medicines that are
not appropriate for them.’ Guidance for
registered pharmacies providing pharmacy
services at a distance, including on the
internet at www.pharmacyregulation.org
PEER PRESSURE
THE LARGEST EVER TRIAL of peer-led drug
prevention programmes in schools is being
conducted across South Wales and the west of
England by researchers at Cardiff and Bristol
universities. More than 5,600 students across 48
schools are involved in the three-year FRANK
Friends pilot, which will see year 9 students
asked to nominate the classmates they feel are
the most influential. The top 17.5 per cent will
then be invited to become peer supporters and
given training in how to talk to fellow students
about the potential harms of drug use.
The schools will be randomly split into
two groups of 24, with one group running
the scheme and the other not, and
researchers collecting information on drug
use to evaluate the project’s effectiveness.
‘There is limited evidence that drug
prevention interventions are effective,’ said
study lead Dr James White. ‘Schools provide
a systematic and efficient way of reaching a
large number of people every year.’
It is important that
the ‘people who
can make it work
are empowered to
deliver it’.
KaRen BIggs
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com