Overview
- Analyzing a national prescription database from 2013 to 2025, the study reports a 63% drop in direct-acting antiviral courses from 185,677 in 2015 to 68,523 in 2025.
- Treatment shifted away from older adults as the share of patients under 40 grew from 5.4% in 2015 to 28.9% in 2025, with Medicaid paying for 48.7% of prescriptions by 2025.
- Specialists wrote 66% of prescriptions in 2015, yet only 28% by 2025, reflecting more hepatitis C care delivered in primary care settings supported by training models such as Project ECHO.
- Despite cure rates above 95% with these drugs, only about one in three people in the U.S. start treatment within a year of diagnosis, according to the authors.
- Researchers say recent annual treatment totals roughly track new infections but fall far short of the roughly 260,000 courses a year needed, which they argue calls for system-level changes to expand access.