HCV Treatment is Safe, Effective for Injection Drug Users
Regardless of ongoing drug use, hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment should be offered to people who inject drugs (PWID), according to the authors of a recent study.
Although revised guidelines no longer exclude PWID from HCV treatment, many healthcare providers are still reluctant to treat the infection in this population.
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For their open-label, single-arm phase 4 trial (SIMPLIFY), the researchers recruited 100 participants with recent injection drug use and chronic HCV genotype 1-6 infection. The participants received oral sofosbuvir (400 mg) and velpatasvir (100 mg) once daily for 12 weeks. Time and date of each dose was recorded via electronic blister packs.
Overall, there were no virological failures, with 97 of the participants achieving SVR12. Drug use before or during treatment had no effect on SVR12, and treatment-related adverse eents were seen in 48 (37%) of patients.
“HCV treatment should be offered to PWID, irrespective of ongoing drug use. Recent injection drug use should not be used as a reason to withhold reimbursement of HCV therapy,” they concluded.
—Michael Potts
Reference:
Grebely J, Dalgard O, Conway B, et al. Sofosbuvir and velpatasvir for hepatitis C virus infection in people with recent injection drug use (SIMPLIFY): an open-label, single-arm, phase 4, multicentre trial [published online January 5, 2018]. Lancet Gastro Hepatol DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2468-1253(17)30404-1.
