Gilead receives provisional NICE backing for hepatitis C drug Epclusa

Gilead Sciences' hepatitis C therapy Epclusa has been recommended in new draft guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

The UK regulator has provisionally endorsed the sofosbuvir-velpatasvir therapy for NHS use as a potential cure for chronic hepatitis C, after an appraisal committee deemed it to be clinically efficacious and cost-effective enough for routine NHS use.

Epclusa works by blocking the virus from multiplying and infecting new cells, with clinical trials of the drug showing it was associated with cure rates of 89 percent and above for all genotypes of the disease.

People who have genotype 3 hepatitis C are currently treated with an older type of antiviral drug that can cause unwanted side effects, meaning Epculsa will represent an effective and beneficial new treatment option for this group of patients.

Professor Carole Longson, director of the NICE centre for health technology evaluation, said: "Our positive recommendation of sofosbuvir-velpatasvir means that more tolerable treatment options will become available to all patients with hepatitis C."

Epclusa was approved in Europe in July and is the first single-tablet regimen approved for the treatment of patients with hepatitis C genotypes 2 and 3 without the need to also prescribe ribavirin.

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