Panvirals: Good News from ASTRAL-1

Researchers who conducted the ASTRAL-1 trial of sofosbuvir/velpatasvir attending the Liver Meeting (AASLD) in San Francisco, CA, presented results of a study on an antiviral that works on five types of hepatitis C virus. The study findings were released last month by manufacturer Gilead.

The drug combo, not yet approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, is meant to treat patients with five genotypes of the hepatitis C virus (types 1,2,4,5 and 6). Patients with genotype 3 are in a separate study.

Presenting the multi-center study’s results, Jordan Feld of Toronto Western Hospital Liver Centre, in Toronto, Ontario, said patients enrolled took the drug for 12 weeks and showed a high rate of sustained viral response. There were 740 patients at 81 sites in North America, Europe, and Hong Kong. Slightly more than half had genotype 1 infections.

“Treatment with the once daily, all-oral, single tablet regimen of SOF/VEL for 12 weeks is well tolerated and results in high SVR 12 rates in treatment-naïve and treatment-experienced genotype 1,2,4,5 and 6 HCV-infected patients with and without cirrhosis,” the team concluded.

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