By Tracy
Swan
It is difficult to be anything other than dazzled by astounding
cure rates of up to 100% from a multitude of interferon-free hepatitis C virus
(HCV) clinical trials presented at the American Association for the Study of
Liver Diseases (AASLD) meeting in November 2012. Proof of concept has been
established: hepatitis C, a disease that claims more than 350,000 lives
annually, can be cured with three months of oral antiviral drugs.
These incredible advances bear scrutiny, since most of these interferon-free trials
enrolled people with minimal liver disease—many of whom were being treated for
the first time. Information about safety, efficacy, and tolerability of
interferon-free regimens is needed in other groups, such as people coinfected
with HIV, liver transplant candidates and recipients, and people with cirrhosis
(especially those who are treatment-experienced)—in other words, people with
the greatest immediate need of a safe and highly effective cure.
Read
the update here:
http://www.pipelinereport.org/toc/HCV/dec-treatment-pipeline-update