New hepatitis C treatments coming next year

[deltasigma]

Or possibly early 2015, so the advise is “to go back to their doctor and get re-evaluated. New treatment options will soon be available, and they’ll be available for folks with kidney disease and cirrhosis of the liver.”

“There’s a revolution afoot in the treatment of hepatitis C,” Dieterich said. He said new treatments that are taken in pill form should be approved in the coming months, and the newer medications will be far more effective at treating hepatitis C than interferon. He added that the treatment times also will be shorter.

“By the fourth quarter of next year, we’ll have at least two new drug cocktails, curing upwards of 90 percent of patients – even those with cirrhosis,” he said.

Dr. David Bernstein, chief of the division of hepatology at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., said the new treatment options are “exciting, but we need to remain somewhat skeptical because many of the studies were done on small groups.”

Source: NIH Healthday - full story at link

[deltasigma]

Not sure, but I guess this is one of the drugs they had in mind when they made this announcement. Olysio:

Olysio is a protease inhibitor that blocks a specific protein needed by the hepatitis C virus to replicate. It is to be used as a component of a combination antiviral treatment regimen. In clinical studies, Olysio was evaluated in combination with peginterferon-alfa and ribavirin, two drugs also used to treat hepatitis C virus infection. Olysio is intended for adults with compensated liver disease (a diseased liver that is still functioning), including cirrhosis, who have not received treatment for their infection (treatment naïve) or for whom previous treatment has not been effective (treatment experienced).
“Olysio is the third FDA-approved protease inhibitor to treat chronic hepatitis C virus infection, and provides health professionals and patients with a new, effective treatment for this serious disease,” said Edward Cox, M.D., director of the Office of Antimicrobial Products in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

[Qadgop_the_Mercotan]

I’m cautiously optimistic about the new treatments, having personally shepherded dozens of patients through up to a year of hell with interferon and ribavirin, only to see maybe a 50% cure rate.

Right now, our health system (the state prison system, that is) is postponing starting treatment on the most stable patients in anticipation of the new drugs.

I’ve been disappointed in teleprevir, though. Cure rates on it are higher, but we get about 50% dropout from treatment because the side-effects are sooooo horrendous. And the damn stuff makes interferon look cheap by comparison.

[garygnu]

Darn. What am I going to compare my melanoma treatment with now?