HUGE News for People with Hepatitis C

Quadruple therapy shows 100 percent SVR for HCV patients previously unresponsive to treatment

This news is incredible, jaw-dropping and fabulous! A new Hepatitis C treatment is 100 percent effective. A weekend post in the HBV and HCV Advocate Hepatitis Blog described the research findings from a presentation at the 2011 European Association for the Study of the Liver conference:

In the quadruple therapy study, HCV patients were given four drugs in combination; pegylated Interferon-alpha (PegIFN-alpha); ribavirin (RBV); and two different direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) BMS-650032 (an HCV NS3 protease inhibitor) and BMS-790052 (an HCV NS5A replication complex inhibitor)...

Professor Heiner Wedemeyer, EASL'S Secretary General, said: "Quadruple therapy is possibly the future of HCV treatment; this study goes a way to confirming that. While it's expected that the first DAAs and triple therapy will be approved for use later this year, quadruple therapy appears to have a more profound effect on virological response, with less of a resistance problem."

The study may also provide new hope for a growing number of HCV patients who cannot be effectively treated for chronic hepatitis with current treatments.

The blog post didn't indicate when the four-med therapy will be available, but I'm hoping it's very soon. And this is news that I'll be following with great interest.

Photo by Jayanta Behera