Hepatitis C
New hepatitis C combination treatment effective in HIV coinfected patients
Patients with both hepatitis C virus and HIV responded well to daclatasvir combined with sofosbuvir in a study.
Source: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Infection with HIV (pictured), concurrently with hepatitis C virus, can speed up the onset of liver disease
Worldwide, hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection affects up to a quarter of people with HIV type 1 (HIV-1), accelerating the onset of liver disease. Now, results of an open-label study suggest that treatment with the NS5A inhibitor daclatasvir, together with the NS5B inhibitor sofosbuvir, is effective against HCV in HIV-coinfected patients.
The ALLY-2 trial, funded by Bristol-Myers Squibb and published in The New England Journal of Medicine (online, 21 July 2015[1]), involved 151 previously untreated patients with HCV genotypes 1–4 and HIV-1 infection who were given daclatasvir 60mg plus sofosbuvir 400mg daily for either 8 weeks or 12 weeks. The study also involved 52 previously treated patients who were given 12 weeks of therapy at the same doses.
In treatment-naïve patients, sustained virologic response (SVR) rates for HCV were 97.0% with 12 weeks’ treatment and 76.0% with 8 weeks’ treatment. In previously treated patients, SVR was 98.1% after 12 weeks.
Citation: The Pharmaceutical Journal DOI: 10.1211/PJ.2015.20069093
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