Myth has it that when bank robber Willy Sutton was asked why he robbed banks, he said, "Because that is where the money is. Using that logic, one would think that if we want to eradicate hepatitis C, we would treat active injection users - that is where the hep C is. However, the sad reality is that injection drug users are woefully neglected. That is, until the C-EDGE CO-STAR Study by Gregory Dore and colleagues.  
CO-STAR is a Phase 3 hepatitis C study that enrolled 301 treatment-naïve participants with genotype 1, 4, and 6 patients on opiate agonist therapy for at least 3 months. They were treated for 12 weeks with Merck’s grazoprevir/elbasvir.
During the study, more than half tested urine positive for a drug screen besides the opiate agonist therapy they were taking. Nearly everyone adhered to the study regimen, and the sustained virologic response (SVR) rate was 95 percent. Fatigue, headache, nausea, and diarrhea were the most common adverse events. 
Thank you Merck for funding this study. Now let’s get our human services to serve humans.
And now for a little levity - Advocate Daniel Berner sporting a giant liver at the rally today...
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