Minnesota prisoners with chronic hepatitis C infections must be provided with highly effective but costly antiviral drugs following a class-action lawsuit settlement.
A group of five inmates infected with the virus sued the Department of Corrections in 2015, accusing the agency of withholding the drugs from them despite the medications having a 95 percent cure rate.
“The settlement will provide a cure to all prisoners at every stage of progression,” said Andrew Mohring, an attorney for the prisoners. “It puts Minnesota in the forefront for treatment and care of its prisoners who have chronic hepatitis C.”
The prisoners were not awarded any money as part of the settlement. However, the DOC must reimburse their attorneys $325,000 in fees and another $41,000 in costs. The medications, known as “direct acting antiviral” (DAA) drugs, range in cost from $26,400 to more than $100,000 per patient. In court filings, the DOC has said that providing the drugs to all inmates could “result in a fundamental alteration to the DOC or its programming.”
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