Grant: Catalyst: Methods Post-Market DSE - Bayesian methods and statistical models

HIV- Hepatitis C (HCV) co-infection is a growing concern across Canada and worldwide. Evidence suggests that co-infected people develop endstage liver disease faster. One of the only ways to prevent endstage liver disease and associated deaths is to cure HCV infection. There is a revolution in new therapies for HCV offering the possibility for curing HCV in the majority of infected persons. However, pharmaceutical trials of new HCV drugs have been very limited especially in HIV infected people. New drugs are extremely expensive making them difficult to access. We need new methods to compare drug treatments and give precise estimates about their relative benefits. We are proposing to develop a cost-effective alternative to randomised trials that could be used to compare new drug treatments in small numbers of patients receiving HCV therapies after they have been marketed. In doing so, we hope to provide co-infected people, their providers and the public payers with more information so they can confidently select the best of these new therapies to use and make available through reimbursement.