Direct-Acting Antivirals for Chronic Hepatitis C Genotype 1: Draft recommendations posted, feedback requested
Yesterday the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH)posted on its website the draft Canadian Drug Expert Committee (CDEC) recommendations report stemming from itsrecent therapeutic review project to assess the clinical and economic impact of new and existing drugs to treat chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection.
The report assesses currently available treatment options for chronic hepatitis C genotype 1 and recognizes the need for an expanded therapeutic review to include future regimens when their clinical trial results become publicly available. In the interim, CDEC provided the following summary recommendations concerning the currently available treatment options:
- CDEC recommends simeprevir daily for 12 weeks, in combination with peginterferon plus ribavirin (PR) for 24 to 48 weeks as the protease inhibitor of choice for treatment-naïve patients or for treatment-experienced patients with prior relapse.
- No definitive recommendation regarding the place in therapy for sofosbuvir, relative to available protease inhibitors, can be made by CDEC at this time due to insufficient clinical evidence.
- CDEC recommends that treatment should be offered only to persons living with CHC who have fibrosis stages F2, F3 or F4.
- CDEC recommends that persons in whom a direct-acting antiviral agent (DAA) plus PR regimen has failed not be retreated with another DAA plus PR regimen.
CADTH has invited all interested parties to provide feedback on the draft report by August 25, 2014. For more information, please see the CADTH website.