In September 2014, Strides entered into a licensing agreement with Gilead Sciences, to bring hepatitis C cure to 91 developing countries.

The product will be available to Indian patients shortly.

Sofosbuvir is the first-in-class NS5B polymerase inhibitor to be launched in India for hepatitis C treatment and represents a paradigm shift in the existing hepatitis C management.

The high potency, high barrier to resistance, pan genotypic activity, once-daily dosage, good safety profile and the limited drug-drug interactions of Sofosbuvir makes it a breakthrough drug in hepatitis C treatment.

This drug in combination therapy has shown to have high cure rates of around 90 percent.

Commenting on the announcement, Mr Mohan Kumar, CEO-Pharma, Strides Arcolab, stated "We are pleased to announce this launch in partnership with Gilead, which is a big leap in our commitment towards bringing critical healthcare at affordable cost."

The launch in other markets is subject to approvals from the regulatory authorities in respective countries.

Globally, it is estimated that 170-185 million people (about 3 percent of the world's population) are chronically infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV).

In India alone, it is estimated that 12-18 million patients are infected with hepatitis C, which is several fold greater than those with HIV/AIDS.