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Telaprevir-based regimens are significantly better than standard care for treatment-experienced hepatitis C patients, research suggests.
Tibotec Virco-Virology BVBA has announced that a significantly greater proportion of patients who have previously failed treatment for chronic genotype 1 hepatitis C virus (HCV) achieved a sustained viral response (SVR) with 12 week telaprevir combination regimens than with the current standard of care, pegylated-interferon and ribavirin, alone.
Telaprevir is an investigational DAA (Direct Acting Antiviral) being co-developed by Tibotec and Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
Final data from the REALIZE trial were presented today at the 46th annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) in Berlin.
SVR, which means the virus remains undetectable in patients’ blood six months after completion of treatment, is the goal of HCV treatment and is considered a cure.
An estimated 170 million people globally suffer from chronic HCV and approximately 10-20 percent of these people will develop cirrhosis and liver failure.
Chronic infection with HCV can lead to liver cancer and other serious and fatal liver diseases, and HCV is the most common cause of liver transplant in Europe.
“These groundbreaking data show that a telaprevir combination regimen significantly improves cure rates for patients with genotype 1 HCV, the most common form of the virus, who have failed previous treatment,” said lead investigator Professor Stefan Zeuzem, Chief of the Department of Medicine, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Hospital, Frankfurt, Germany.
“Significant advancements in treatment such as this will make a real difference in reducing the burden of HCV.”
