FIND, a global non-profit organisation dedicated towards development of affordable diagnostic tests globally, is currently negotiating a proposed grant agreement with UNITAID to fund increased access to hepatitis C (HCV) diagnosis and treatment in India.

The proposed project, if funded by UNITAID, would widen the availability of affordable and effective HCV diagnosis and help create a viable market for HCV drugs at reduced prices.

Diagnostic tests for HCV are currently only available in the form of high priced screening tests and confirmatory testing at central laboratories making them inaccessible to millions of people. New, simplified and affordable tests are crucial to unlocking markets for effective HCV treatment globally.

The proposed project would work to obtain regulatory approval for new, simplified and high quality HCV diagnostic tests, secure preferential pricing agreements with test suppliers and incorporate new HCV tests in existing HIV programmes in order to begin scaling up access to HCV diagnosis and treatment among one of the most vulnerable populations.

Globally an estimated 130 to 150 million people including 12 million in India have HCV. However, in low and middle income countries, only an estimated 1 per cent of people with HCV are aware that they are infected.

HCV poses a particularly severe threat to people living with HIV. Globally, an estimated 3.2 million HIV/HCV co-infected patients are vulnerable to rapidly progressing liver disease. This situation is similar to that prevailing at the height of the HIV crisis 15 years ago, when millions around the world required treatment that, at the time, was available almost exclusively in wealthy countries.

With sustained funding, market interventions and investments in health systems, nearly 16 million HIV infected people in low and middle income countries now receive life-saving anti-retroviral therapy (ART). Without increased efforts to tackle HCV and the hidden epidemic of HIV/HCV co-infection, the disease is poised to undermine successes in HIV care.

Said Dr Catharina Boehme, CEO, FIND, “Hepatitis C is curable. New, simple-to-use and affordable tests are essential in the battle against HCV and can contribute to disease elimination when deployed with innovative testing and treatment strategies.”

The necessary ingredients already exist for market interventions and investments in health systems to create sustainable HCV care and treatment programmes worldwide. New non-toxic HCV drugs that work against every genotype of the disease have dramatically simplified HCV care and treatment, and are now widely available in high income countries but priced well beyond the reach of most low and middle income country programmes.

FIND was established in 2003 as a global non-profit dedicated to accelerating the development, evaluation and delivery of high-quality, affordable diagnostic tests for poverty-related diseases, including tuberculosis, malaria, HIV/AIDS, Ebola, sleeping sickness, hepatitis C, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease and Buruli ulcer.

Over the last decade, FIND has partnered in the delivery of 11 new diagnostic tools, including six for tuberculosis and created an enabling environment for countless more through the provision of specimen banks, reagent development and better market visibility. FIND also supports better access to new diagnostics through implementation, quality assurance and lab strengthening work. It has nearly 200 partners globally, including research institutes and laboratories, ministries of health and national disease control programmes, commercial partners, clinical trial sites, and bilateral and multilateral organisations, especially WHO.