Hepatitis B, C antiviral drugs included on National List of Essential Medicines

Food and Drug Administration deputy secretary-general Surachoke Tangwiwat said 916 drugs are mentioned on the list.

He said the move aimed to enable more people to access hepatitis B and C antiviral drugs as both diseases could trigger liver cancer.

The price of hepatitis C antiviral drugs will become cheaper as the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation is now able to produce them, he noted.

“Patients who have hepatitis B will receive new drugs which can treat the virus effectively,” he said.

Surachoke added that the rising median price of some drugs has been “improved” to facilitate procurement and enable more people to access the drugs, such as granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, a glycoprotein that stimulates bone marrow.

On Wednesday, the National Communicable Disease Committee approved a strategy to eliminate hepatitis B and C between 2022 and 2030 as these diseases are considered a global public health problem.

Separately, expert virologist Dr Yong Poovorawan pointed out on his Facebook page on Thursday that the number of children with chronic hepatitis has increased in more than 20 countries.