New therapeutic developments are revolutionising the way hepatitis is treated. But with a global lack of funding, how can these pioneering new drugs be financed? Finding innovative solutions to this pressing issue is crucial to the work of the World Hepatitis Alliance so we will be hosting the World Hepatitis Advisory Committee Meeting (WHAC) on 11th – 13th February to follow our Board meeting.   

Despite new incredibly effective drugs transforming hepatitis treatment and providing an unprecedented opportunity to tackle the global burden of viral hepatitis, a worldwide lack of funding is the greatest barrier in combatting the disease. The Alliance is therefore taking action to explore innovative ways to look at how countries can find new funding sources and how individuals can finance the new drugs. Hence, we are hosting the World Hepatitis Advisory Committee Meeting (WHAC), bring together our board members from six word regions, other patient advocates, representatives from the pharmaceutical industry and experts in the field of access to treatment and health financing.

Our WHAC Meeting will be divided into two parts; the first half of the meeting on 11th-12th February will provide the opportunity for the pharmaceutical industry to present their drug developments and to inform the community about their access initiatives. The second half on 12th-13th will function as an exploratory think-tank style meeting with five speakers delivering presentations on topics such as health financing and micro-insurance with the aim to initiate discussions on new ways to fund hepatitis programmes. These presentations and discussions at the WHAC will drive the development of ideas which we will then present to policy makers at the first World Hepatitis Summit in September 2015. 

We will keep you updated on the developments on this front.