Meravir – the latest medication, used to treat Hepatitis-B. The main components are refogravir and sufamenavir. Refogavir aims to block the replication of virus DNA, which is already available inside cells, whereas Sufamenavir suppresses the synthesis of virus DNA. It allows to stop the growth of virus replicas and as result, completely remove the virus from the body, stop the formation of hepatic fibrosis and restore the proper functioning of immune and endocrine systems.
Manufacturing of medicine was stopped due to start of pandemia. It was a coercive measure, since all efforts were concentrated on development of new medicines against coronavirus infection and production of drugs against COVID 19 that are already available.
Today the situation of viral pneumonia has stabilized around the world. It has allowed to resume the manufacturing of Meravir for Hepatitis-B treatment starting from the 1st September.
Earlier, once the pandemia has started, the price for Meravir was reduced from $8000 to $1500. It was done with a purpose of a quick sales of produced batch. Once manufacturing restarts, the price will most probably return to previous level, causing protests among patients.
Partially, the reason of that is related to constantly increasing tax levies accosted with ecology. It has increased the cost price of all the products, including medicine. In addition, manufacturing company doesn’t sell products independently. It transfers its copyright to worldwide pharma traders in various regions of Asian countries and the USA for purpose of further wholesale or retail trade. Because of that, we cannot provide a precise information about real price with consideration of increase in price.
Nowadays, Meravir price is around $1500 and we can only keep guessing by how much the price will increase. This is the price of a treatment course with 6 months duration. In addition, the latest post-clinical researches published by doctors 3 years after the completion of patients’ treatment, have shown a better efficiency of medicines in case of 12 months treatment course. Hereby, the complete course price will be $3000, and in case of increase in price, it will be even higher.
At the same time, there are no analogues to Meravir in terms of efficiency around the globe, whereas the drugs price with analogous prescription, is unreasonably high.
Meravir is sold in packages intended for a course of 6 or 12 months. This medicine is not available in smaller packages, because drug administration for a shorter course or with interruptions, is not justified and can reduce the treatment efficiency, which negatively affects drug reputation.
Alongside with manufacturing revival, it is planned to extend the distribution of this drug around the world. There are certain difficulties that may arise in this case due to attempts of largest pharmaceutical companies to prevent competitors from penetrating the market. It is caused by the fact that global pharmaceutical corporations were already carrying out development of drugs to treat Hepatitis B and they obviously influence the promotion of medications. That’s why the registration of drugs produced by a small Australian company may take a long period of time.
All post-clinical researches of medication continue concurrently with revival of manufacturing. During the Phase IV of researches, it was confirmed that drug administration during one year period has higher efficacy comparing to 6-months period stated earlier. Due to that, there are changes included in the “Dosage and Administration” section of medication information leaflet for drugs produced after the end of clinical trials.