Hepa B program offers treatment discounts

MANILA, Philippines - Pharmaceutical giant Roche (Philippines) Inc. and the Hepatology Society of the Philippines (HSP) have launched a new program providing hepatitis B patients with access to treatment at discounted rates.

Dubbed “PEGASSIST Easy Access Plan,” the program enables hepatitis B patients to access peg-interferon alfa-2a hepatitis treatment medication with discounts of up to 50 percent.

Dr. Dennis Dioko, Roche Business Unit director, said the program “socializes the medication discount system” wherein patients who “truly cannot afford the medication will get a higher discount accordingly.”

Dioko said having hepatitis B does not only predispose someone to liver cirrhosis and liver cancer, but it also affects the work and personal relationship of the patients and their loved ones.

“For patients who are interested to see if they can qualify for discounts through the PEGASSIST Easy Access Plan, there are several ways to find out. First, if they are seeing a gastroenterologist, their doctor can refer them to the hepatitis hotline (718-7620),” he said.

Patients who have been prescribed peg-interferon alfa-2a will then be referred to a financial assessment agency that will determine the discount rate applicable to them.

“In addition to providing discounts on the medication, hepatitis B patients will also be provided with free selected hepatitis B laboratory tests that would have otherwise been very expensive,” Dioko said.

According to HSP internal auditor Dr. Judy Lao-Tan, hepatitis B is a “silent infection” that affects some 16 million Filipinos.

“Hepatitis B is a viral infection that occurs in the liver. The hepatitis B virus gets into the liver and this is one of the most common serious liver infection worldwide,” she added.

Worldwide, it is estimated that some 360 million individuals are carrying the hepatitis B virus.

Tan said the disease is spread in the Philippines primarily through mother-to-child transmission during birth delivery.

“If the mother is a carrier of hepatitis B, then during the process of delivery she transmits the virus to her newborn,” Tan said.

The other mode of transmission is through blood-to-blood or body fluid contacts. This can happen during drug transfusion, intravenous drug use, sharing of infected needles, body piercing and tattooing, and by having multiple sexual partners.

Tan said hepatitis B is highly preventable through vaccination of the newborns thrice, with the first dose given shortly after birth, the second dose a month later, and the third dose six months thereafter.