Adherence to Hepatitis C Treatment Among Underserved Patients With Substance Use Disorder in a Pharmacist-led Treatment Model.

BackgroundTreatment with medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) may improve hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment outcomes by providing additional contact with health care professionals to support patient engagement. We describe a pharmacist-led HCV treatment model and assessed the effect of MOUD on adherence to direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) in an underserved patient population. This was a retrospective cohort study of adults (age≥18 years) treated for HCV infection with DAAs at a Federally Qualified Health Center in Portland, Oregon, between March 1, 2019, and March 16, 2020. Patients were followed to 12 weeks to assess adherence to DAAs by MOUD status. Among 59 eligible patients, 16 (27%) were prescribed MOUD. Baseline characteristics were similar between patients who did and did not receive MOUD. Adherence to DAAs was overall high and not significantly different between the groups (median: 98.5% vs median: 100%; P = .06). Five patients missed at least one dose due to an adverse drug effect and two of these patients discontinued HCV therapy due to these effects. Adherence to HCV therapy was nearly 100% among underserved patients in a pharmacist-led HCV treatment model and did not differ by MOUD engagement.