Cirrhosis better treated without ribavirin/All-oral simeprevir-sofosbuvir beat interferon-based regimen for HCV

All-oral simeprevir-sofosbuvir beat interferon-based regimen for HCV with compensated cirrhosis

By: AMY KARON, GI & Hepatology News Digital Network

April 1, 2015

Vitals

Key clinical point: An all-oral simeprevir-sofosbuvir combination outperformed peginterferon/ribavirin/sofosbuvir in patients with genotype 1a HCV infection and compensated cirrhosis.

Major finding: Rates of sustained virologic response at 12 weeks were 93% for the simeprevir-sofosbuvir regimen and 75% for the interferon-containing regimen (P = .02).

 

Data source: Prospective open-label study of 82 treatment-naive and treatment-experienced patients with HCV infection and Child’s grade A cirrhosis.

Disclosures: Dr. Pearlman reported having contracted research for Johnson & Johnson, Gilead, Abbvie, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Merck; and having served on speaker and advisory boards for Johnson & Johnson, Gilead, and Abbvie. Dr. Pearlman also reported having been an investigator and author in the COSMOS trial of sofosbuvir and simeprevir. The other authors reported no conflicts of interest.

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Cirrhosis better treated without ribavirin

At the time of sofosbuvir (SOF) and simeprevir (SMV) approval, efficacy results of the combinations assessed in this study were still limited, especially in patients with cirrhosis, GT-1a, and/or previous nonresponse. The recent study by Dr. Pearlman and his associates aims to give light to some of the questions raised.

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