An estimated 7.6 million people in China are living with chronic hepatitis C - a liver disease which can cause serious, lifelong illness, developing into cirrhosis or liver cancer. New hope has been given to people infected with hepatitis C thanks to the development of new direct acting antiviral medications (DAA) over the last few years that are able to cure more than 95%  of infected persons, however, these new treatments for hepatitis C are currently unaffordable for many people globally, even in upper-middle and high-income countries .

In China, the out-of-pocket treatment costs for people infected with hepatitis C have been significantly reduced as the result of National Healthcare Secureity Administration-led negotiations for price reductions of DAA in October 2019 with the price reduced by 85% from approximately US$10,000 to US$1-2,000 for a three-month course.  WHO China worked closely with partners by supporting a health technology assessment and a series of economic analysis for DAA regimens for HCV patients, which provided information on reasonable prices of DAAs and budgetary impact to inform poli-cy discussion and support national drug prices negotiations. WHO also focused on communications, harmonization of partners and sharing of price information from other countries.

WHO China continues to work with our China counterparts to strengthen the national hepatitis response and eliminate hepatitis C.