Administration eyes national hepatitis C treatment plan

ROLLCALL POLICY -    By Sandhya Raman, Posted October 25, 2022 at 11:15am
The plan would streamline testing and treatment and secure an agreement with drugmakers to bring down the cost of treatment of the disease, which has spiked during the pandemic
The Biden administration is preparing a comprehensive initiative to fight hepatitis C that would streamline testing and treatment and secure an agreement with drugmakers to bring down the cost of treatment of the disease, which has spiked during the pandemic.
Francis Collins, special project adviser to President Joe Biden and former longtime director of the National Institutes of Health, said Monday the administration hopes to secure some funding this year for the yet to be formally unveiled initiative.
He said he has briefed Biden on the plan, and the Office of Management and Budget is “enthusiastic about figuring out how to fit this into the budgetary requests.”
The plan, he said, would include agencies including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Indian Health Service, Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
“It would certainly involve virtually all of the government agencies that have a major role to play,” he said.

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