Press release: WASHINGTON – A Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) database study shows that new drug regimens for hepatitis C have resulted in "remarkably high" cure rates among patients in VA's national health care system.

Of the more than 17,000 Veterans in the study, all chronically infected with the hepatitis C virus at baseline, 75 percent to 93 percent had no detectable levels of the disease in their blood for 12 or more weeks after the end of treatment. The therapy regimens lasted 8 to 24 weeks, depending on patient characteristics. .. the newer drugs are considered far more tolerable than the older interferon-based antiviral regimens, although they are far more expensive.

Veterans Affairs spent $696 million -- or 17 percent of their total annual pharmacy budget -- on HCV medication in 2015. This year, it has dedicated nearly a billion, which it hopes to increase to $1.5 billion in 2017.

According to recent studies, one out of 10 U.S. veterans are living with HCV, a rate five times higher than the average population. Veterans of the Vietnam War are considered to be at particular risk due to blood transfusions and blood contact during warfare.