Hepatitis C News

Patients with hepatitis C and HIV coinfection had high rates of sustained virologic response in an urban clinical setting with the use of standard nurse and pharmacist adherence support programs, according to results of a recent study.

Regulus Therapeutics announced its plans to discontinue development of RG-101 for hepatitis C, according to a press release. Additionally, the company is initiating a phase 2 study for an Alport syndrome treatment, an investigational new drug for autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease and discontinuing two other drug candidates.

Fixed dose treatment with sofosbuvir-velpatasvir-voxilaprevir with or without ribavirin for 12 weeks was effective and well-tolerated in patients with hepatitis C genotype 1 who had previously failed direct-acting antiviral therapy, according to a recent study.

For the first time in its 40-year history, WHO’s Model List of Essential Medicines includes advice on when and when not to use certain antibiotics — a significant change that health officials said was aimed at containing the global threat of antimicrobial resistance, optimizing treatment and preserving last-resort antibiotics.

Next-generation metagenomic sequencing, or NGMS, can potentially detect new viral infections in the blood that may be of medical importance, such as human hepegivirus-1, according to data published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Viral eradication with direct-acting antivirals does not appear associated with an increased risk for liver transplant waitlist drop-out due to hepatocellular carcinoma progression in patients with hepatitis C, according to a recently published study.

Adding hepatitis C virus screening to an automated order set for patients with HIV greatly increased hepatitis testing at a Massachusetts clinic, according to researchers.

The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control recently published results of two semi-structured surveys that found a wide variation in existing national testing policy and lack of monitored data for hepatitis B and hepatitis C in the EU/EEA member states.

Results of a recently published prospective study showed that direct-acting antiviral therapy is effective in patients coinfected with hepatitis B and hepatitis C and most patients with HBV reactivation had later resolution.

An investigational fixed-dose combination regimen containing Sovaldi, velpatasvir and voxilaprevir for the treatment of hepatitis C virus resulted in high rates of SVR after 12 weeks of treatment among patients with or without compensated cirrhosis in whom previous therapy with direct-acting antiviral agents had failed, according to results of two international, phase 3 trials.