Hope Against Hepatitis C
New medicines are being developed that are expected to transform the care of patients with hepatitis C, making treatment far more effective and far less grueling.
The new drugs, which could start reaching the market as early as next year, could help subdue a virus that infects roughly four million Americans, most of them baby boomers, and 170 million people worldwide.
“I almost think this will be revolutionary, to be honest,” said Dr. Fred Poordad, chief of hepatology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. “We are chomping at the bit to try to treat as many patients as we can.”
About two dozen pharmaceutical companies are now pursuing drugs for hepatitis C, which an executive at Vertex Pharmaceuticals recently called “one of the largest pharmaceutical opportunities this decade.”
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Hepatitis C Drug Telaprevir Raises Cure Rate
Study: 75% Viral Cure Rate With Telaprevir Plus Standard Therapy
By Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Health News
Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD
May 26, 2010 — Adding the experimental hepatitis C drug telaprevir to standard interferon/ribavirin therapy cured 75% of newly treated patients, drug maker Vertex announced.
Moreover, most patients taking a 12-week course of telaprevir combination therapy were able to shorten the total length of their grueling treatment from 48 weeks to 24 weeks.
Because hepatitis C virus (HCV) rapidly becomes resistant to telaprevir, the drug must be given in combination with other antiviral treatments, and these treatments are continued for weeks after completion of telaprevir therapy.
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Hepatitis C Drug Raises Cure Rate in Late Trial
An experimental drug for hepatitis C from Vertex Pharmaceuticals sharply increased the cure rate in a clinical trial, while reducing the time needed for treatment.
Experts say the results could herald a new era in treating a sometimes fatal disease that is often overlooked, despite afflicting as many as 3.9 million Americans and 170 million people worldwide.
About 75 percent of patients in the trial who got the standard dose of Vertex’s drug in combination with the existing treatment were essentially cured, compared with 44 percent of those who got only the existing therapy.
The results were as good as or slightly better than expected. Vertex’s stock was up more than 12 percent in after-hours trading, after the company’s announcement of the results late in the afternoon.
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New Drug Cures Hard-to-Treat Hepatitis C
By Salynn Boyles
WebMD Health News
Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD
April 7, 2010 — Patients who fail current hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatments have few other options except trying the same drugs again, but an experimental antiviral drug is poised to change that.
When the drug telaprevir was added to standard treatment with peginterferon alfa and ribavirin, which are also antivirals, about half of patients who had failed previous treatment with the two drugs cleared the virus.
The patients showed no evidence of HCV infection six months after completing treatment, which is considered a cure.
Telaprevir is one of two highly anticipated drugs in the class known as protease inhibitors being studied in patients with chronic hepatitis C infection, a condition that affects about 3 million Americans and is the leading cause of liver transplants in the U.S.
Phase III trials are under way for telaprevir, manufactured by Vertex Pharmaceuticals, and boceprevir, manufactured by Schering-Plough.
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