New drug therapy zaps hepatitis C in 12 weeks

Trials of new hepatitis C drug suggest sufferers could be cleared of the virus within 12 weeks of treatment.

The new drug Telaprevir which is made by the biotech company Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Tibotec Pharmaceuticals appears to significantly reduce the treatment time for the serious liver disease.

The trial apparently produced a high rate of rapid viral response (RVR) in patients treated with the drug along with a low rate of on-treatment viral breakthrough; some patients were clear of the virus after 12 weeks of Telaprevir-based therapy.

This is the first trial to evaluate short-duration treatment in hepatitis C patients who have not received treatment for hepatitis before and according to the researchers the fact that some patients have remained persistently viral negative 20 weeks after stopping the 12 weeks of therapy, suggests it may be possible to shorten the treatment for some patients.

Of the 175 patients given the Telaprevir-based therapy 19 were forced to abandon the treatment because of side-effects such as a rash, gastrointestinal problems and anemia and a variety of isolated events, including depression.

The genotype of the virus to a large extent determines the effectiveness and duration of current treatments for hepatitis C; the virus has 6 genotypes and many subtypes which vary throughout the world.

Some genotypes are not as responsive to treatments which are based on interferon compared with the others, and in such cases Interferon treatment can take almost a year to clear the virus.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says the hepatitis C virus is a major cause of acute hepatitis and chronic liver disease, including cirrhosis and liver cancer and 170 million people throughout the world are chronically infected it.

There are 3 to 4 million new infections a year worldwide.

Hepatitis C is most commonly spread by direct contact with human blood as a result of blood transfusions and re-using non-sterilized needles and syringes.

The interim analysis of the Vertex-sponsored mid-stage study were presented at a major European liver disease meeting in Barcelona on Saturday; full results will not be available until later on in the year.