Hep C Discussion Forum

Hello,

I had an appointment last week with a new doctor.  She was part of the team that designed the current treatment that is available for Hep C. She was on the R&D team and worked the the FDA approval process for the current treatment.  She left the research field to get back into patient care and now works at Boston's Beth Isreal in the Infectious Disease department.

I wanted to share the information that she gave me.  

In her personal opinion she said that she was generally against liver biopsy and preferred to use Fiberscan and Hepascore blood tests for liver fibrosis staging.  She felt that Gileads 7977 combo would be available in 2015.  She indicated that there was another line of new drugs being developed that should be available for clinical trials in 2018.  

I asked her if she felf that Gilead and Bristol would work out their differences and she replied that she didn't think so.  She said that Gilead has partnered with other companies before for AIDs treatments and the partnerships went badly.  She thought the non-cooperation between Gilead and Bristol Meyers delayed treatment by about a year.  From her speaking with her associates working at Gilead, she didn't feel that Gilead would change their position regarding Bristol.  

I know that her comments might seem a little negative but here are the positives that came from my meeting with her.  

1.) Her and her associates around the world have high confidence in the usefulness of non-invasive fibrosis staging markers such as Fibrascan and Hepascore.

2.) Even though the treatment delay as a result of Gilead and Bristol going their separate ways was unfortunate, the delay period will only be about a year and 7977 should be FDA approved by next year.

3.) There's even a better line of treatments in the pipeline than 7977, so a cure for everyone is just around the corner with either 7977 or the next generation of treatment targeted for clinical trials in 2018.

4.) She felt of all the infectious viruses in the wild that Hep C was one that is "just barely holding on by it's finger nails and will soon beccome history."

I had the Fibrascan and Hepascore tests and will have the results in 2-3 weeks.  One of the tests (I don't remember which one) is not FDA approve and needed to be sent out of the country.

I've had a lot of good GastroIntestinal Specialist of the 30 years.  The woman from last week seemed to have some value add because of her background in developing the current treatment.  I personally put a lot of stock in what she told me but I'm only passing on what was told to me during my appointment.  I will post a followup in a month when I meet with her again and we review the lab results.

Two other things, I'm taking Milk Thistle and a few other herbs. I asked her for an opinion on using herbal supplements not to cure Hep C but to help the liver function better while I'm waiting for treatment.  She said that she has seen patients liver enzymes flair up when they started using Mile Thistle.  As such I will discontinue taking it.

We discussed that my liver profiles have always been excellent over the years.  She stated that although liver profiles are important that she's feels the fibrosis testing to be necessary as the liver profiles will continue to look good while liver damage is occuring and won't show abnormal until the liver is extremely damaged and by then it's generally too late.

As a quick disclaimer, I'm not posting this information to change anyone's opinion regarding treatment, Gilead or the future of curing Hep C. I'm simply passing along the information that I received last week, from a health care provider who's previously worked on developing the current Hep C treatment and who seems to be more knowledgeable on the politics and economics of treatment than my previous Boston liver specialists.

"Everyday's a gift, that's why they call it the present"

Be well,

Lon