In a new study published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, treatment times for approximately two thirds of hepatitis C patients’ can be reduced to six months by administering patients’ with a telaprevir-based combination therapy. Telaprevir is developed as a hepatitis C therapy, inhibiting replication of virus and was approved in May.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, approximately 3.2 million U.S. citizens are infected with chronic Hepatitis C infections. It is the leading cause of liver cancer and cirrhosis in the U.S. and the main reason for liver transplants, claiming the lives of about 10,000 people annually. The destructive and difficult to treat disease is transmitted through virally infected blood, often through shared syringes or other equipment to inject drugs, but rarely through medical procedures. Prior to 1990 some infections were caused by blood transfusions.

Funded by Vertex Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, Mass., the new talaprevir study involved a total of 540 hepatitis C patients who were administered 3-times daily with 750 mg of telaprevir in addition to therapy with pegylated interferon and ribavirin for duration of 12 weeks.

Patients where the virus was undetectable in the first month of treatment were eligible for shortened treatment and randomized to receive either 24 weeks or 48 weeks of treatment. Findings revealed high cure rates in both groups, concluding that there was no benefit to additional treatment in early responders.

Because this therapy requires intensive monitoring and laboratory visits, shorter treatments mean less disruption of the patients’ daily life, fewer side effects, as well as lower costs.

Results of the study showed that 72% of patients treated with telaprevir, pegylated interferon and ribavirin were cured of their hepatitis C. Telaprevir and a similar medication called boceprevir have almost doubled the number of patients with sustained response.

According to the study, two-thirds of patients can be cured in half the time, i.e. patients clear of the virus within the first 4 to 12 weeks of therapy can effectively reduce their treatment time from 48 weeks to six months. Apart from considerable patient benefits in terms of shorter treatment, these results also indicate that response-guided therapy is a successful strategy.

Fred Poordad, MD, chief of Hepatology and Liver Transplantation at Cedars-Sinai and a senior author on the study explained:

“This means that rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, we can individualize treatment for patients based on their specific response to the drugs. Once you’re cured by these anti-viral drugs, you’re cured of hepatitis C completely. That’s a little known fact among the public – and even among physicians who don’t regularly treat liver disease.”

As one of the major research sites for new hepatitis C treatments, Cedars-Sinai’s medical center is involved in developing most of these new compounds.

In the beginning of this year, Dr. Poordad was lead author of a study on the anti-viral drug boceprevir, also an oral protease inhibitor, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The study involved 1,097 patients with hepatitis C who had never been treated for the virus receiving the standard treatment – pegylated interferon and ribavirin for a four-week duration. After the 4-week period, a third of the patients continued with the same drugs, while two other groups also received different durations of boceprevir. Both boceprevir groups achieved 63 percent and 66 percent sustained virus suppression compared with 38 percent of the pegylated interferon and ribavirin group.

Written by Petra Rattue