'Miracle' hepatitis C drugs costing £30k per patient 'may have no clinical effect'

Review concludes drugs hailed as cure for potentially fatal liver disease may clear virus from blood, but there is no evidence they prevent harm or save lives

Drugs that have been hailed as a cure for a debilitating and sometimes fatal liver disease - but have threatened to break the health budgets of most countries because of their cost - have not been proven to have any effect, according to a new review.

The startling conclusion came from the respected and independent Cochrane Collaboration, which has assessed all the drug company trials of the breakthrough hepatitis C treatments.