text_1: FDA approves Epclusa for treatment of chronic Hepatitis C virus infection
text_2: This release announces the approval by the FDA of a new pill, Epclusa, for patients with chronic infections with Hepatitis C virus, also known as HCV. The tablet combines an existing drug, sofosbuvir, with a new drug, velpatasvir, and is the first single therapy for all six major forms of the virus. Patients can be infected with different forms and require different treatments. The release informs on the novelty, harms and benefits of the drug but doesn’t give reporters — or lay readers — much background on the clinical trials that led to the approval. An estimated 120 million people have HCV infections worldwide, with an upper estimate of 3.9 million in the US alone, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This new treatment — Epclusa — has an estimated cost of about $74,800 per 12-week necessary therapy length — or about $900 per pill. But without treatment, many HCV patients may require years of treatment and suffer damage to their livers that require transplants and could ultimately be more expensive. The economics of new drugs is a vital part of any story about the drugs. We wish this release had included some context on the cost issues surrounding HCV infection for both patients and the society at large. A blogger with Bloomberg News focused a post about the drug pricing which has been controversial due to the millions of patients affected.