This is the first-ever global report on treatment access to hepatitis C medicines. The report provides the information that countries and health authorities need to identify the appropriate HCV treatment, and procure it at affordable prices. The report uses the experience of several pioneering countries to demonstrate how barriers to treatment access can be overcome. It also provides information on the production of new hepatitis C drugs and generic versions worldwide, including where the drugs are registered, where the drugs are patented and where not, and what opportunities countries have under the license agreements that were signed by some companies as well as current pricing of all recommended direct-acting antivirals (DAAs), including by generic companies all over the world.

P.12 - People who inject drugs (PWID) are the group with the highest HCV prevalence, an estimated 67%. Injections among PWID with unsterilized syringes or shared injecting equipment are the major transmission mode in high-income countries and are increasingly being reported in LMICs (low- and middle-income countries). The major route of transmission in LMICs is through the reuse of syringes and needles, and through substandard infection control practices in health-care settings.