Medicines update
9th July 2014
New Hep C treatment wins approval
The TGA has approved a new-generation, direct-acting antiretroviral called sofosbuvir (Sovaldi, Gilead), which can reduce treatment time and increase cure rates for hepatitis C to 90%.
In clinical trials, adding sofosbuvir to interferon plus ribavirin in patients with genotype 1 reduced the duration of treatment from 48 weeks to just 12 weeks and increased cure rates to 90 per cent.
Approved in the US in December last year, and in Europe in January, the drug works directly on the virus by halting the replication process in the