Good Results on Drug Combo for Patients Who Failed DAAs

A combination of sofosbuvir, velpatasvir, and GS-9857 has been shown safe and effective in treating hepatitis C genotype 1 infection, researchers from the Texas Liver Institute reported.

In a presentation at the International Liver Congress in Barcelona, Eric Lawitz, MD, clinical professor of medicine atthe Texas Liver Institute, University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, TX and colleagues said the treated patients had failed treatment with other direct-acting antivirals.

Overall, 98% of the patients in the study achieved sustained viral response at 12 weeks with the three-drug combo, with or without ribavirin.

Lawitz described the group of subjects as “hard to treat patients” and said the majority (65%) were men.

Overall, 41% of patients had previously received an NS5A inhibitor and 47% had received at least two classes of direct-acting antivirals.

In the treatment group that completed the trial there was one serious adverse event. Two patients who got ribavirin discontinued treatment due to adverse events.

The most frequent such events were fatigue and anemia, and were seen only in the patients who got ribavirin.

Gilead Science’s GS-9857 has been presented as drug that can treat many HCV genotypes, but the Texas study focused on GT-1, the most common in the US.