Review Article
Breakthroughs in Treatment of Chronic Hepatitis C - Time for an Obituary for Peginterferon/Ribavirin?
| Peter Ferenci* | ||
| Department of Internal Medicine III, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Medical University of Vienna, Austria | ||
| Corresponding Author : | Peter Ferenci Department of Internal Medicine III Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Medical University of Vienna, Austria Tel: +43-1-40400-4741 Fax: +43-1-40400-4735 E-mail: peter.ferenci@meduniwien.ac.at |
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| Received January 28, 2014; Accepted February 21, 2014; Published February 25, 2014 | ||
| Citation: Ferenci P (2014) Breakthroughs in Treatment of Chronic Hepatitis C - Time for an Obituary for Peginterferon/Ribavirin? J Infect Dis Ther 2:130. doi: 10.4172/2332-0877.1000130 | ||
| Copyright: © 2014 Ferenci P. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. | ||
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Abstract
Within 2 years after licensing peginterferon/ribavirin and first generation protease inhibitors (telaprevir, boceprevir) for treatment of chronic hepatitis C the speed of development of new treatments has substantially increased. Combinations of various direct acting antivirals (DAA) like protease inhibitors (simeprevir, faldaprevir, ABT-450), HCV NS5A inhibitors (ie. daclatasvir, ledipasvir, ABT-267) and HCV RNA polymerase inhibitors (sofosbuvir, ABT-333) are highly effective and can cure hepatitis C without major side effects within 12 weeks. Once these combinations are approved by FDA and EMA they are likely to provide an interferon/ribavirin free treatment.
