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During a special conference, EASL released its 2016 recommendations for the treatment of hepatitis C. The findings were simultaneously published in the Journal of Hepatology.
“HCV elimination will require national plans together with forecasted budgeting to expedite unrestricted access to treatment,” Jean-Michel Pawlotsky, MD, PhD, professor of medicine at the University of Paris-Est, and member of the recommendations panel, and colleagues wrote. “All treatment-naive and treatment-experienced patients with compensated or decompensated chronic liver disease related to HCV, who are willing to be treated and who have no contraindications to treatment, must be considered for therapy.”
The new recommendations add Epclusa (sofosbuvir/velpatasvir, Gilead Sciences) and Zepatier (grazoprevir/elbasvir, Merck) to the arsenal of treatments recommended in 2015.
Sofosbuvir/velpatasvir fell into recommendations for all genotypes, while grazoprevir/elbasvir was recommended for genotypes 1 and 4.
With these new drugs and the success of previously recommended medications, EASL included recommendations to treat patients awaiting liver transplantation as well as acute HCV.