HCV Research UK
In light of the growing healthcare burden that will emerge from increased HCV-associated liver disease, HCV Research UK was established to create an infrastructure to connect major UK liver centres involved in the management of HCV-infected patients.
£1.92 million was provided by the Medical Research Foundation (MRF) to support HCV Research UK, which was launched in January 2013.
A bespoke clinical research database linked to a biorepository is being constructed from samples and treatment information collected from at least 10,000 infected patients from across the UK. This will create a national cohort of patients to provide information and specimens for clinical and basic research.
The initial recruitment target of 10,000 patients was reached at the end of 2014. There are currently >11,800 patients recruited into the HCV Research UK cohort.