Triple Drug Cocktail Can Defeat Hepatitis C with Cirrhosis
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Hepatitis C patients with cirrhosis respond well to boceprevir or telaprevir with careful monitoring
Liz Highleyman
Produced in collaboration with hivandhepatitis.com
Published: 05 December 2012
Real-world experience in the French early-access CUPIC cohort shows that hepatitis C patients with advanced liver damage can achieve good response to interferon-based triple-therapy including boceprevir (Victrelis) or telaprevir (Incivo), researchers reported at The Liver Meeting 2012, the 63rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) last month in Boston.
Over years or decades people with chronic hepatitis C can develop serious liver disease, including cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma. Whilst people with advanced liver damage are most urgently in need of treatment, they do not respond as well to interferon-based therapy, the current standard treatment for hepatitis C.
Pivotal trials of new drugs typically do not include the most difficult-to-treat patient groups, both because pharmaceutical companies want their candidates to perform as well as possible and because people with advanced disease are most likely to experience safety problems.
Such individuals may be able to access new treatments through early- and expanded-access programmes that run alongside controlled clinical trials, however. In France early access is available through the Temporary Authorisation for Use, or ATU, programme as drugs are awaiting marketing authorisation.
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