23 November 2017 - General practice has a real opportunity to significantly lead the way to treat people in the community with the medicines we fund for hepatitis C, but we still have some way to go, writes Dr Bryan Betty, GP and PHARMAC Deputy Medical Director.

Since 1 July 2016 PHARMAC has been funding exciting new medicines which give people the chance of a hepatitis C cure in as little as 12 weeks of treatment; Viekira Pak is available for the approximately 55% of people who have genotype 1(a or b) and Harvoni is available for all people with hepatitis C with end stage liver disease.

Around 2,300 people with hepatitis C have accessed funded treatment to date with Viekira Pak, but we believe there are around 8,000 more people who could benefit from these potential cures right now. General practitioners can lead the uptake by continuing to provide a safe place for patients to open up about their risk behaviours. From there, getting tested for hepatitis C is straight forward for both patients and practitioners.

Read PHARMAC press release