First hepatitis D medicine is given restricted approval in Scotland after US rejection

Scotland has become the first country in the UK to approve a specific treatment for the hepatitis delta virus (HDV), after it granted bulevirtide (Hepcludex) “restricted use” approval for patients with chronic infection and compensated liver disease.1

The drug (2 mg powder for injection) will be made available for patients with evidence of significant fibrosis who have not responded to or cannot take interferon based treatment.

Hepatitis D is found only in people with chronic hepatitis B and infects about 5% of such patients. It is considered the most severe form of chronic viral hepatitis and is known to progress rapidly towards liver cancer and liver related death.2

The approval by the Scottish Medicines Consortium comes …