DNDi and our partners are supporting global elimination efforts by accelerating access to affordable treatments. Following development of ravidasvir, the first all-oral treatment for hepatitis C developed through South-South collaboration, we are now exploring ravidasvir’s advantages for specific sub-populations of patients living with HCV. We are also working with national governments, civil society organizations, and other partners to help enable access to affordable direct-acting antiviral treatments and foster the political will needed for wide-scale roll-out of test-and-treat strategies.

Our progress in 2023 includes:

Implementation

Ravidasvir + sofosbuvir: Ravidasvir was added to the WHO Essential Medicines List and included in the Malaysian Ministry of Health’s Medicine Formulary (MOHF) and National Essential Medicines List (NEML) in 2023. The combination of ravidasvir and sofosbuvir was recommended as an alternative treatment for people living with both HIV and HCV in the Malaysian Consensus Guidelines on Antiretroviral Therapy.

In July 2023, DNDi signed a technical and scientific cooperation agreement with the Drug Technology Institute (Farmanguinhos), Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), and Pharco Pharmaceuticals to request the registration of ravidasvir with the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency (Anvisa).

Recruitment into the Malaysia Ministry of Health-led EASE study, supported by DNDi, was completed in 2023. Ravidasvir was also included as one of the DAA treatments in the C-FREE-CSEA prospective cohort study in Thailand.

In June, DNDi conducted a pilot training with Argentina’s National Programme for Hepatitis Control, designed to reinforce the skills of 200 primary healthcare physicians, nurses, and community health workers in Córdoba Province and to serve as the basis for further scale-up in other provinces.

The Hepatitis C Partnership for Control and Treatment (Hep C PACT) concluded its work to advocate for the roll-out of all-oral cures, scale up community-based testing, and address domestic financing challenges and access barriers with achievements in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Malaysia, Brazil, and Argentina. DNDi is building on these achievements by continuing to provide technical and advisory support to ministries of health and civil society organizations working to address hepatitis C in the five target countries.

Photo credit: Abang Amirrul Hadi-DNDi