Dr. Raymond Schinazi, developer of the Sovaldi drug for the treatment of Hepatitis C, said the drug works well for early and advanced cases, but is not effective if there is liver cancer.
“The cure rate ranges from 90 percent to 100 percent,” he told talk show host Lamia al-Hadidi via satellite from London.
He added that the drug showed better results than Interferon, which has a cure rate of 40 percent. “Sovaldi is taken for 12 weeks,” he said. “It cures for life if the infection does not occur again.”
Sovaldi is produced by Gilead, which was criticised for selling the drug at high prices. Yet the company offered to sell it to Egypt at a 99-percent discount, as Reuters reported on 21 March.
Meanwhile, the state-run MENA news agency quoted Health Minister Adel al-Adawi as saying Egypt agreed to buy the drug in the second half of 2014 for US$300 for a pack that lasts for a month.
This means that the cost will be US$900 for 12 weeks and more for 24 weeks.
Reuters said the cost of the 12-week treatment in the United States is US$84,000.
Schinazi said there are 12 million patients of Hepatitis C in Egypt. “This is a big problem,” he remarked, pointing out that he is also working on a drug to cure AIDS.
Schinazi was born in Alexandria in 1950. “I spent my childhood there but had to leave because of the political circumstances at the time,” he said. “But I’m coming to Egypt for a medical conference in the Red Sea governorate in November.
The Egyptian-born doctor is of Jewish heritage.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
