Antiviral drug introduced in hepatitis C treatment may improve outcomes

Incorporating an antiviral medication into hepatitis C treatments may improve the cure rate in patients, according to a study published in The Lancet.

Recently, researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine added the drug boceprevir to a traditional hepatitis C treatment plan, which takes place over the course of 48 weeks. While this therapy is a common procedure, patients can suffer from several side effects, such as anemia.

After adding the medication to a two-drug treatment program, the team discovered that the cure rate increased by 75 percent as opposed to the 38 percent found in a control group.

In order to see if similar results would occur during a shorter treatment plan, investigators reduced the time span to 28 weeks. The team also observed how patients would react to taking two drugs for four weeks before starting the three-drug process for 44 weeks.

These trials showed that the best results outcomes were in patients who followed the four-week two-medication regimen before the 44-week program.

Paul Kwo, lead author of the study, stated that "both 28- and 48-week regimens significantly increased response rates - which is the best definition of a cure we have." He added that "the 48-week treatment arm with 4 weeks of peg interferon lead-in and 44 weeks of peg interferon, ribavirin and boceprevir led to the largest improvement over the control group ever reported."