All Oral HCV Therapies of the Future

Abstract

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) therapy has revolved around pegylated interferon-alpha (PEG IFN) and ribavirin (RBV), with the recent addition of the direct-acting antivirals (DAA), telaprevir or boceprevir, to the regimen for genotype 1 patients. Further progress has been made with the identification of multiple targets, allowing for additional DAAs, including other protease inhibitors, NS5A inhibitors and NS5B polymerase inhibitors. Initial studies have shown these drugs to provide more effective therapy than the current standard of care when combined with PEG IFN and RBV. More recently, however, even without PEG IFN, combinations of DAAs have been shown to allow for shorter treatment duration, increased efficacy, and better safety profiles. These regimens have the potential to allow HCV to be eradicated with all oral therapy in the near future.