Non-profit group the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) and Egyptian drug maker Pharco Pharmaceuticals have teamed up to launch a low-cost hepatitis C combination treatment. The proposed regimen, which combines drug candidate ravidasvir and the approved hepatitis C drug sofosbuvir, would be priced at just under $300 for a course of treatment. This is a fraction of the $80,000 plus charged by major drug makers.

Ravidasvir is an NS5A inhibitor, one of a new generation of direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) that are said to be revolutionizing the treatment of the liver disease. Hepatitis C is a blood-borne viral infection that affects up to 150 million people around the world, with approximately 75% living in middle-income countries.

DNDi has licensed rights to ravidasvir in low- and middle-income countries from Presidio Pharmaceuticals, the California, US-based firm that developed the drug.

The group will be launching clinical trials to test the combination treatment in Malaysia and Thailand once necessary approvals are received. Bernard Pecoul, executive director of DNDi, said if the trials are successful the regimen could become an affordable alternative to today’s high drug prices and treatment rationing.

Malaysia and Thailand are among the many middle-income countries excluded from the voluntary licensing agreements that Gilead and Bristol-Myers Squibb have made with generic companies, for example in India, to lower the cost of their treatments.

In a phase III clinical trial conducted by Pharco in Egypt, ravidasvir showed cure rates of up to 100% in patients with genotype 4, the most common variant of the disease in the Middle East and Africa, when used with sofosbuvir.