Biotech Values

[willyw]

Thanks. I think you are correct; that many sources reference earlier studies. My point was that the decline in the HCV infected is slow and that many infected remain in the USA.
Many up to date sources seem to reference a 2.4 to 2.5 million cases in the USA or a slightly under 1% incidence rate.

At the root of it is the difficulty in estimating many who are clinically un-diagnosed,
coupled with the opioid epidemic (50K new cases annually in the USA?), increased homelessness and people falling thru the cracks of social programs- rendering the actual number increasingly speculative.

The past two years with covid has not helped matters much.
Due to covid both testing and HCV treatments have declined.

I feel the existing numbers may be close enough.
Obviously, I could be wrong.

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https://www.hepatitisc.uw.edu/pdf/screening-diagnosis/epidemiology-us/core-concept/all
new cases of acute hepatitis C were
reported to the CDC from 44 states; based on this number, the CDC estimated a total of 57,500 new acute
cases of HCV in 2019.[2] From 2010 to 2019, the number of estimated annual acute HCV infections increased
by 387% (Figure 4).[2] This steady and significant increase in new HCV infections from 2010 to 2019 is
attributed primarily to the opioid epidemic, and associated injection drug use, particularly among young
adults

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also- running out of time to edit but;
During 2014-2020, there were 843,362 US persons living with hepatitis C who had initiated DAA treatment.
So that divided by 6 years means about 140K treated/ year
IF you have (i'm rounding) 55K new cases per yearit's a marginal gain..