b'newdrugs,basedontheircliniciansrecommendation,program that provided best practices to healthcare systems receive the medication. across the country.The list price for the drugs started at $1,000 per pill. Still,Themanufacturersflexibilitydramaticallyincreased for the VA, treatment made financial sense. Unlike othertreatmentratesintheVA,reducingmorbidityand payers, the healthcare system would likely provide care forcuttingdeathfromadvancedliverdiseaseinhalf. veterans on its rolls throughout their lives and would incurPrior to 2014, 12,000 veterans had achieved sustained the cost of liver complications, hepatocellular carcinomavirological response to HCV therapies. At its peak, the and liver transplant for a significant percentage of veteransVA was starting nearly 2,000 veterans each week on HCV if they were not cured. The cost for the shorter course oftreatment.drugs was not significantly different than the cost of theFrom January 2014 through the end of fiscal year 2018, nearly one-year course required before DAAs, but nearlymorethan152,000veteransreceivedtreatmentwith everyone could tolerate the new treatment, and virtually allDAAs. Cure rates for the last four years topped 94%.patients achieved sustained virologic response. AsthelargestsingleproviderofHCVcareinthe Budget limitations initially led VA to prioritize care forU.S., this is terrific news because it means we are within the sickest patients, those who had documented fibrosis,striking range of eliminating hepatitis C among veterans cirrhosisorothercomplicationsfromHCV.InMarchunder the care of the Veterans Health Administration, 2016, however, the department announced that it was ablesaidVASecretaryRobertWilkieinMarch2019.At to fund care for all veterans with hepatitis C for Fiscal Yearthat point, fewer than 25,000 veterans with HCV in VA 2016 regardless of the stage of the patients liver disease.care remained to be treated, and efforts were in place to The move follows increased funding from Congress alonghelp them overcome issues that kept many of them from with reduced drug prices. receiving treatment such as substance use disorder and AllthemanufacturersofHCVtherapiesGilead,homelessness. Merck, AbbVie, Janssen, Bristol-Meyers SquibbworkedThese efforts have been nothing short of life-saving for with the VA to develop pricing that enabled treatment oftens of thousands of veterans, Wilkie noted, and thats all veterans. By 2016, the VA was paying about 40% ofpreciselywhyVAhasmadediagnosing,treatingand list price and had rolled out a full screening and treatmentcuring hepatitis C virus infection such a priority. Thank You to AMSUS Sustaining Members and Leadership!On behalf of our AMSUS-SM companies, I offer my heartfeltAubrey Wooley,gratitude to the following leaders within our organization for theirco-chair, AMSUS-SM Legislative Committee, The Coalition for ongoing support of AMSUS, our sustaining members and theGovernment Procurementfederal health professionals we all serve: John Zieger,Matt King, AMSUS-SM Membership Working Group, Bristol-Meyers Squibbvice chairman, AMSUS-SM, Foundation Medicine Madeline Cowie,Winston Churchill, AMSUS-SM Membership Working Group, Thornhill Medicalsecretary-treasurer, AMSUS-SM, PaciraLuciano Kolodny,Bill Cieri,AMSUS-SM Membership Working Group, Amarin Corporation immediate past-president, AMSUS-SM, MylanTammy Anderson, Should any AMSUS member or federal health professional have co-chair, AMSUS-SM VA Committee, AstraZeneca questions about our AMSUS sustaining member organization Dan Giffin, and how industry might be able to help support their patient care co-chair, AMSUS-SM VA Committee, Stryker and federal health system goals, please feel free to call on me. Mitch Brew, TOGETHER we can achieve far more than any one of us on our co-chair, AMSUS-SM DoD/DHA Committee,3M own. TOGETHER we are going to win this war against SARS-CoV-2. Our AMSUS-SM organization and members look forward Dominic Cuccaro, to each and every opportunity to serve AMSUS, federal health co-chair, AMSUS-SM DoD/DHA Committee, AbbVie/Allergan professionals, and the patients for whom you care.Karen Watkins,co-chair, AMSUS-SM USPHS Committee, J&J/Janssen Be Safe & Stay Healthy!Ron Walters,co-chair, AMSUS-SM USPHS Committee, Cook Medical John DiMaggio,Howard Crawford, (Chairman, AMSUS Sustaining Members 2018-2020). US WorldMedsco-chair, AMSUS-SM Legislative Committee, Lovell [email protected] Mobile: (972) 839-5773THE VALUE OF THE PARTNERSHIP: Industry and the Federal Customer Working Together 11'