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3-drug mixture was nearly 100 percent effective in drug company trials
WEDNESDAY, May 31, 2017 (HealthDay News) — A pill that contains three powerful antiviral drugs might offer a cure for many hepatitis C patients who have failed other treatments, researchers report.
The pill — which contains the antiviral drugs sofosbuvir (Sovaldi), velpatasvir and voxilaprevir — was nearly 100 percent effective in curing hepatitis C in patients whose disease returned after treatment with other antiviral drugs, the researchers said.
“Currently, we have very good treatments for hepatitis C, and we are able to achieve a cure in over 90 percent of patients. So globally, although only a few patients relapse, it still is a significant number,” said lead researcher Dr. Marc Bourliere, from the Hospital Saint Joseph in Marseilles, France.
This new pill is being developed as a rescue treatment for patients who have failed other therapy, he said. When it was used as an initial treatment in another study, the combination pill fared no better than the usual treatment, he added.
The report was published June 1 in the New England Journal of Medicine.