​By Nicholas Florko Sept. 13, 2022

WASHINGTON — For nearly a decade, many experts assumed the biggest obstacle to eliminating hepatitis C was the sky-high cost of the new cures.
So when Washington state and Louisiana signed flashy, unprecedented deals with the pharmaceutical companies that make the medicines back in 2019, and dedicated personnel and money toward the lofty goal, many celebrated. Just last week, the White House held the states up as a potential model for a forthcoming multibillion-dollar national effort with the same aim.
But those states are nowhere near achieving the overarching goals they set, a new STAT investigation reveals. In Washington, the rate of treatment for the state’s Medicaid program now is actually lower than it was before the initiative began.

The rocky roads in each state underscore that eliminating hepatitis C will likely be far more difficult than it seems, as STAT’s interviews with more than two dozen experts, including current and formerly incarcerated people, drug industry officials, the intellectual architects of the Washington and Louisiana deals, and a U.S. senator show.
Though we have now had a miracle cure for the condition for nearly a decade — and though its cost is falling — there are more intractable problems than mere access. The condition often affects people who don’t see doctors regularly and might miss the infection, or who don’t even have a safe place to store medication. Big goals and a stockpile of pills, experts told STAT, aren’t enough.

TO CONTINUE READING: ​https://www.statnews.com/2022/09/13/louisiana-washington-hep-c-investigation/?utm_source=STAT+Newsletters&utm_campaign=a418d40f4b-Pharmalot&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8cab1d7961-a418d40f4b-151392865
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Team Takes on Virus Behind Liver Disease in Tens of Millions Globally

By Nicole Tenly Aug 24, 2022

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) awarded $6.9 million to researchers at the Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research (IBBR) to design a vaccine to combat the virus that causes Hepatitis C (HCV), which affects an estimated 71 million people worldwide and puts them at risk for severe liver disease, including cancer.
This five-year award will support a multidisciplinary research team based at IBBR, a joint research enterprise of the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The researchers aim to develop a vaccine to induce broadly neutralizing antibodies and long-term memory T cell responses to help prevent HCV infection. This recent award follows a $6 million grant awarded to the IBBR research team in 2017 based on its significant progress in the field.

​TO CONTINUE: https://today.umd.edu/6-9m-niaid-award-to-fund-design-testing-of-hepatitis-c-vaccine