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Hepatitis C - Generic sofosbuvir-based interferon-free direct acting antiviral agents: a real-world multicenter observational study

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Generic sofosbuvir-based interferon-free direct acting antiviral agents for patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection: a real-world multicenter observational study
Chen-Hua Liu, Yi-Jie Huang, Sien-Sing Yang, Chung-Hsin Chang, Sheng-Shun Yang, Hsin-Yun Sun, Chun-Jen Liu, Wen-Chun Liu, Tung-Hung Su, Hung-Chih Yang, Chun-Ming Hong, Tai-Chung Tseng, Pei-Jer Chen, Ding-Shinn Chen, Chien-Ching Hung & Jia-Horng Kao

Full-Text Article 
Scientific Reports volume 8, Article number: 13699 (2018)
Published: 12 September 2018 

Abstract
Real-world data regarding the effectiveness and safety of generic sofosbuvir (SOF)-based interferon-free direct acting antiviral agents (DAAs) for patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection remain limited. A total of 517 chronic HCV-infected patients receiving 12 or 24 weeks of SOF-based therapies were retrospectively enrolled in 4 academic centers in Taiwan. The rate of sustained virologic response at week 12 off-therapy (SVR12) and that of treatment completion were assessed. The baseline characteristics and on-treatment HCV viral kinetics to predict SVR12 were analyzed. By evaluable population (EP) analysis, the SVR12 rate was 95.4% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 93.2–96.9%). The SVR12 was achieved in 29 of 34 patients (85.3%, 95% CI: 69.6–93.6%), 130 of 139 patients (93.5%, 95% CI: 88.2–96.6%), 119 of 124 patients (96.0%, 95% CI: 90.9–98.3%) and 215 of 220 patients (97.7%, 95% CI: 94.8–99.0%) who received SOF in combination with ribavirin (RBV), ledipasvir (LDV), daclatasvir (DCV) and velpatasvir (VEL), respectively. Of 517 patients, 514 (99.4%) completed the scheduled treatment. All 15 patients with true virologic failures were relapsers. Two decompensated cirrhotic patients had on-treatment deaths which were not related to DAAs. All 7 patients who were lost to follow-up had undetectable HCV RNA level at the last visit. The SVR12 rates were comparable in terms of baseline patient characteristics and viral decline at week 4 of treatment. In conclusion, generic SOF-based regimens are well tolerated and provide high SVR12 rates in patients with chronic HCV infection.

Introduction
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection remains a challenging health problem in the world. It is estimated that approximately 71.1 million people, which account for 1.0% of the world’s population, are HCV carriers1. Among patients with chronic HCV infection, about 20% of them will evolve to cirrhosis over a period of 20–30 years. Once cirrhosis is established, the annual rates of developing hepatic decompensation and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are 3–6% and 1–4%, respectively2,3. In addition to increasing the risks of liver-related morbidity and mortality, HCV infection is also associated with various extra-hepatic manifestations which further compromised the patients’ health outcome and quality of life4. On the other hand, the morbidity and mortality are significantly reduced once these patients achieve sustained virologic response (SVR) by anti-HCV agents5,6,7,8,9.

The use of interferon (IFN)-free direct acting antiviral agents (DAAs) has made a paradigm shift and become the standard of care for HCV infection. Sofosbuvir (SOF) is a pyrimidine nucleotide analogue that inhibits the HCV non-structural protein 5B (NS5B) ribonucleic acid (RNA)-dependent RNA polymerase, which is essential for viral replication. After intra-hepatic metabolism to active uridine triphosphate form, the GS-461203, it is incorporated to HCV RNA by NS5B polymerase and acts as the chain terminator10. Clinically, SOF is administered once-daily with pangenotypic potency, well tolerability, a high genetic barrier to drug resistance, and low rates of drug-drug interactions (DDIs). Furthermore, SOF can be used in combination with various kinds of NS3/4 A protease inhibitors (PIs), NS5A inhibitors, and/or ribavirin (RBV) to achieve high SVR rates11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23. Because of the excellent therapeutic profiles, treatment of HCV by SOF-based regimens is appealing to most health care providers.

Although SOF-based IFN-free DAAs are highly efficacious and well tolerated, many HCV-infected individuals have limited governmental reimbursement or private insurance support for brand-name agents24,25,26. Allowing generic SOF-based DAAs through voluntary or compulsory licensing can scale up the HCV treatment to facilitate more efficient HCV control, particularly for patients in resource-constrained countries. Regarding the effectiveness and safety of generic SOF in combination with ledipasvir (LDV), daclatasvir (DCV), and/or RBV, several reports from China, India, Egypt and Argentina indicated that the SVR rates were >90% and most patients tolerated the treatment well27,28,29,30,31. On the basis of these encouraging results, we aimed to evaluate the performance of generic SOF-based DAAs for HCV and factors potentially affecting the treatment response in a multicenter cohort in Taiwan.

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