New Therapy for HCV Shows Dramatic Results

Analysis of a study of patients with hepatitis C virus (CV) has shown that 49% achieved a sustained viral response (SVR) when using new-generation pegylated interferon (Pegasys) therapy in combination with a drug called Copegus. A second study showed that 99% of patients who achieved an SVR remained virus-free up to four years later. The results of these phase III studies were reported at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) in Geneva, Switzerland.

A third study showed that levels of Pegasys remain constant in the body over a seven-day period, suppressing the virus on a constant basis. This may explain the efficacy of the drug. In contrast, half of the patients treated with peginterferon alfa-2b had no detectable drug in their bodies by the fifth day after an injection, despite the fact that it is a once-a-week drug, which could potentially lead to new virus replication.

For cirrhotic patients who also had the genotype 1 virus, the most difficult to treat but most common form of HCV, 38% achieved SVR using Pegasys combination therapy versus only 25% with conventional combination therapy. For patients with genotype 2/3 HCV, the rate of cure rose to 72% with Pegasys combination therapy, versus 45% with conventional combination therapy. Pegasys is the product of Roche (Basel, Switzerland).

"This information tells us that when patients achieve a sustained virologic response, they are indeed really cured,” said Dr. Mark Swain, associate professor of medicine, University of Calgary (Canada), who participated in the research. In his study evaluating long-term response, he found that more than 99% of patients remained virus-free four years later.




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