Entecavir, An Effective Antiviral Drug, may Help Treat Hepatitis B Virus Infection

Hepatitis B drug, entecavir, could be mass produced for only $36 per person per year. Combining mass vaccination with mass treatment would lower death rates.

A drug for treating hepatitis B virus (HBV) could be mass-produced at a fraction of its current price - for only $36 (Rs.2,267) per person per year, versus the current US price of over $15,000 (Rs. 944,775), say University of Liverpool researchers in Britain.

Hepatitis B causes liver cancer and liver cirrhosis, both of which can be fatal. It is transmitted through blood and infected bodily fluids. There is also a risk of infected mothers passing on the Hepatitis B virus to their children.

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Bachchan and his wife and Rajya Sabha member Jaya Bachchan met Health Minister J.P. Nadda and expressed interest to spread awareness on various health issues.

"We have shown that the Hepatitis B drug, entecavir, could be mass produced for only $36 per person per year. Combining mass vaccination with mass treatment would lead to huge reductions in the number of people being infected with Hepatitis B, and could significantly lower the death rates from the current 686,000 per year worldwide," said Andrew Hill, senior visiting research fellow.

The researchers analyzed the factors which influence the cost of manufacturing of drugs for hepatitis B, including the cost of the raw materials, the amount of drug needed and the patent situation of each drug.

They found that the drug entecavir (Baraclude, Bristol Myers Squibb) has the potential to be mass produced as a generic drug at a fraction of its current price which would mean that all countries, including poorer/developing countries, could afford to use it.

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Hepatocellular carcinoma is one of the few cancers in which a continued increase in incidence has been observed over recent years.

Entecavir is an effective antiviral drug used in the treatment of HBV infection with few adverse side effects to patients, low levels of resistance.

The dose is only 0.5 milligrams per day, so only a fifth of a gram would need to be produced to provide a year’s supply. This is one reason why this drug is so cheap to manufacture.

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Researchers led by MIT’s Sangeeta Bhatia and Charles Rice of Rockefeller University revealed that they were able to sustain hepatitis B virus in human liver cells.

Currently, entecavir is the most expensive drug for hepatitis B on the market in both developed and developing countries.

However, the expiration of its patent in February 2015 in the US and other countries, which means it could now be manufactured as a generic drug by other companies at a far lower cost.

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Undergoing antiviral therapy can reduce the risk of liver cancer among patients who have chronic hepatitis B infection.

The study appeared in the Journal of Virus Eradication.

Source-IANS