The North Shore Health Project in Gloucester, MA has been awarded a grant of $44,000 from Vertex Pharmaceuticals for its work with individuals with Hepatitis C. The company awarded Circle of Care grants to 16 organizations following a national competition.

Other recipients include Yale University, University of the Sciences (Philadelphia), University of North Carolina, San Francisco General Hospital, University of Alabama, and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

The Health Project is the only program in Massachusetts to receive an award. Each grantee will present the results of its work at a symposium in Boston, sponsored by Vertex, to be held in the fall.

Cami Graham, M.D. Vice President for Global Affairs at Vertex Pharmaceuticals explained that Circle of Care is “a grant program that looks to support organizations that are trying to address barriers to care for people with hepatitis C. We recognize that the epidemic of hepatitis C is not going to be addressed just by new medications alone. . . . Some of the best ideas out there come from unexpected places and we wanted to give small and large groups the opportunity to show us and to show the world what they are able to do.”

The North Shore Health Project, located in Gloucester and serving all of Essex County, provides care for individuals with HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C. Its services include counseling, peer support, holistic therapies, nursing care, nutritional services, and housing assistance. These services help support a stable lifestyle, which better enables clients to tolerate their disease, their treatments, and the side-effects of those treatments.