Boehringer Ingelheim announced results from a Phase Ib study, SOUND-C1, that showed the combination of two oral hepatitis C virus (HCV) compounds, the protease inhibitor BI 201335 and the polymerase inhibitor BI 207127, with ribavirin reduced viral load to the lower limit of quantifiable levels in HCV treatment-naïve patients.
The regimen did not include interferon through the first 28 days of treatment. These data are being presented at the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) 2010 Liver Meeting in Boston, MA.
“These early data suggest that there is the potential for the combination of oral anti-HCV therapies to reduce the viral load in a more tolerable, interferon-sparing regimen. The current standard-of-care, PegIFN/RBV, is challenging for HCV patients due to side effects that impact treatment adherence and has suboptimal response rates”
New protease-polymerase inhibitor combination resulted in 73-100% rapid virological responses without pegylated interferon. In this randomised open-label trial, 32 treatment-naïve genotype-1 HCV patients received a combination of BI 207127 in either 400mg or 600mg doses three times a day (TID) with BI 201335 120mg once daily (QD) together with ribavirin (RBV) (1000/1200mg daily in two doses) for 28 days. All patients had a rapid and sharp decline in HCV viral load during the first two days, followed by a slower second phase decline.
In the lower and higher dose groups, 73 and 100% of patients achieved a rapid virological response (i.e. had a HCV RNA below thelower limit of quantification after 4 weeks of treatment).
One patient experienced a viral breakthrough (increase by >1 LOG10 from nadir during treatment) and one other experienced a 0.7 LOG10 increase in viral load. Both patients were in the lower dose group of BI 207127 and were patients with a high baseline viral load.
On day 29, all patients were switched to treatment with BI 201335 and PegIFN/RBV for an additional 44 weeks per the defined study protocol, and will be followed to evaluate sustained virological response.
“These early data suggest that there is the potential for the combination of oral anti-HCV therapies to reduce the viral load in a more tolerable, interferon-sparing regimen.
The current standard-of-care, PegIFN/RBV, is challenging for HCV patients due to side effects that impact treatment adherence and has suboptimal response rates,” said Stefan Zeuzem, MD, Chief of the Department of Medicine and Professor of Medicine at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Hospital in Frankfurt, Germany and lead investigator of the study. “An interferon-sparing regimen could provide an important treatment option for patients with chronic hepatitis C.”
Source: Boehringer Ingelheim