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San Francisco—While patients with most other genotypes of HCV respond well to all-oral, interferon-free therapies, treatment of those with genotype 3 remains more challenging. A combination of daclatasvir and sofosbuvir appears to offer an effective option, based on preliminary study results.

A European compassionate use program enrolled 101 adult patients with chronic HCV infection who had a high risk of death or hepatic decompensation within 12 months if untreated and who had no other available treatment option. They received daclatasvir 60 mg and sofosbuvir 400 mg once a day, with ribavirin added at the physician's discretion. Recommended duration of treatment was 24 weeks. TM Welzel and colleagues presented the findings in poster 37 at the 2015 annual meeting of the AASLD. You can access the entire abstract here.

Of the 24 patient for whom HCV RNA data at 12 weeks post treatment was available as of March 16, 2015, 22 achieved sustained virologic response (92%). One patient relapsed. Neither the addition of ribavirin nor cirrhosis status affected the results.

In the total group, 22 patients experienced at least 1 serious adverse event and 5 patients discontinued therapy; 2 patients died from multi-organ failure.

Most patients were male (68%), white (90%), and treatment experienced (58%). The median age was 54 years (31-75). About 4 of 5 patients had cirrhosis (81%), while more than half (56%) were Child-Pugh class B/C and 13 (16%) had MELD scores greater than 15; 7 patients were liver transplant recipients and 15 had HIV coinfections.