This weekend I learned that Gregg Allman, of the Allman Brothers, has hepatitis C. Not just that; he underwent a liver transplant last year for treatment of liver cancer. This information came my way via CNN, in a clip narrated by Dr. Sanjay Gupta. The cable TV crew filmed the old rocker in Macon, Georgia, at the band’s Big House.
Gregg Allman, performing in 2010 (Wikimedia Commons)
“He’s taping a public service announcement for the drug company Merck, about hepatitis C,” Gupta says 40 seconds or so into the clip (italics added, ES).
Hepatitis C stays silent in many carriers, meaning that most people with the virus are unaware of their infected state. The liver-infecting virus spreads most often by contaminated needles, sexual relations or transfusion of infected blood. Over time, the virus tends to cause liver damage and blood problems including anemia and, rarely, a condition called mixed cryoglobulinemia. In patients with long-standing hepatitis C, there’s a significantly elevated risk of developing liver cancer.
For two decades there have been a few, fairly effective anti-viral drugs available for hepatitis C. Treatment generally reduces patients’ anemia and liver disease, which leads them to feel better, and also reduces the risk of the long-term effects of infection, including liver cancer. Last month the FDA approved two new drugs for hep C: Victrelis (boceprevir), manufactured by Merck, and Incivek (telaprevir), by Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
While I have no formed opinion as to which of these new drugs is most effective or less toxic or more affordable in the long term for patients with hepatitis C, I do find it strange that Gregg Allman will be singing for Merck.
Eat a Peach (album cover)
The ethics of this are complicated: On the one hand, it might be a good thing for a music icon to raise public awareness about hepatitis C, so that more people at risk might get tested and then treated early before they develop severe liver disease and cancer, and would feel better. Gregg Allman is in a position to spread that message effectively: “If I have hep C, you might have hep C. Let me tell you about it…” (somewhat in the style of Magic Johnson, on HIV).
On the other hand, the notion of a post-transplant musician serving as the public’s primary source for information on hepatitis C seems preposterous, especially if he’s tied in with a pharmaceutical company with a stake in the matter. The situation is reminiscent of Sally Fields starring in commercials for Boniva, an osteoporosis drug.
You might ask yourself — and it’s not a trivial exercise — who can best, and objectively, inform the public about viral liver infections and the potential benefits of treatment: doctors? (we harbor biases; many have industry ties); patient peers? (Allman is a heightened example, but he’s hardly objective about this, either); newspapers? (or radio…
Will Allman’s be wasted words? (Hard to resist.) Really I’m not sure.
But I might go to Allman’s concert for the American Liver Foundation, at the Beacon Theater, scheduled for July 27.
All for now.
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