Using a simple combination of two hepatitis C drugs over a 12-week period effectively cured the virus in 99 percent of patients participating in a recent clinical trials, according to new research by hepatologists at the Toronto Western Hospital (TWH) Liver Clinic.
The breakthrough, reported this week in the New England Journal of Medicine, involved a once daily combination of the medications sofosbuvir and velpatasvir over a three-month span. Study authors found the therapy was effective both in patients who had previously been treated as well as in those who had not, and eradicated several hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes.
In addition, the sofosbuvir-velpatasvir combination therapy even proved effective in those with compensated cirrhosis, a condition in which scarring of a patient’s liver has taken place, but they have yet to experience any symptoms as a result of the damage to the organ.
“This drug regimen changes the standard of care in treating patients with HCV,” said Dr. Jordan Feld, lead author of the study and a TWH hepatologist. “We can now cure almost everyone with a very simple treatment. It’s incredibly gratifying to be part of research where we not only cure a disease but can also think about eliminating HCV in Canada.”
Treatment eliminates the need to test for HCV genotype
Approximately 252,000 Canadians and 170 million men and women worldwide are infected with chronic HCV, the TWH researchers explained. Symptoms frequently do not appear until the liver becomes seriously damaged. Left undiagnosed, it can lead to cirrhosis, liver failure, or cancer.
The virus is typically spread through blood-to-blood contact, either through intravenous drug use or poorly sterilized medical equipment, they added. Currently approved treatments for HCV vary in effectiveness based on genotypes, but the sofosbuvir-velpatasvir combination appears to work on all strains of the virus, eliminating the need to test for the pathogen’s genotype.
Randomized, double-blind tests showed than 99 percent of the more than 600 patients taking part in the study experienced a sustained virologic response after 12 weeks of treatment with the drug combination, effectively meaning that they were cured of the disease. The patients remained free of HCV three months after completing treatment, Dr. Feld and his colleagues reported.
Dr. Feld called it “a one size fits all treatment that is very easy to administer and extremely well tolerated. Our challenge now is getting treatment to those who need it. Over half of people living with hepatitis C remain undiagnosed. Fortunately this regimen… will allow us to move treatment out of specialty clinics so that we can deliver care and ideally cure all infected Canadians.”
—–
Feature Image: Thinkstock
Comments