Monday, November 26, 2012

Which patients should be prioritised for new hepatitis C treatments?

Which patients should be prioritised for new hepatitis C treatments?

Rob Camp
Published: 23 November 2012
Younger patients with advanced liver disease caused by hepatitis C should be prioritised for treatment with newly licensed directly acting antivirals to achieve the biggest reductions in ill health and hospitalisation, according to a modelling exercise presented by University of Pittsburgh researchers at the 63rd annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) earlier this month in Boston.

According to Jagpreet Chhatwal of the University of Pittsburgh, many people who had deferred antiviral treatment for hepatitis C with pegylated interferon plus ribavirin started to request treatment for chronic hepatitis C when telaprevir and boceprevir, the first DAAs (oral directly acting agents), were approved and marketed a little over one year ago.

This increase in the numbers of people willing to be treated resulted in waiting lists, because of a limit on the number of people who could initiate treatment every week. Such waiting lists can be expected again in the future when next-generation DAAs are approved.


Continue Reading....

No comments:

Post a Comment