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Officials with Gilead Sciences, Inc.today announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Epclusa® (sofosbuvir 400 mg/velpatasvir 100 mg), the first all-oral, pan-genotypic, single tablet regimen for the treatment of adults with genotype 1-6 chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection.
Epclusa is also the first single tablet regimen approved for the treatment of patients with HCV genotype 2 and 3, without ribavirin. Epclusa for 12 weeks was approved in patients without cirrhosis or with compensated cirrhosis (Child-Pugh A), and in combination with ribavirin (RBV) for patients with decompensated cirrhosis (Child-Pugh B or C).
According to a statement from Gilead, the approval is supported by data from four international phase 3 studies, ASTRAL-1, ASTRAL-2, ASTRAL-3 and ASTRAL-4. In the ASTRAL-1, ASTRAL-2 and ASTRAL-3 studies, 1,035 patients with genotype 1-6 chronic HCV infection, without cirrhosis or with compensated cirrhosis received 12 weeks of Epclusa. The ASTRAL-4 study randomized 267 patients with genotype 1-6 HCV infection, with decompensated cirrhosis (Child-Pugh B), to receive 12 weeks of Epclusa with or without RBV or 24 weeks of Epclusa. The primary endpoint for all studies was SVR12.
Of the 1,035 patients treated with Epclusa for 12 weeks in the ASTRAL-1, ASTRAL-2 and ASTRAL-3 studies, 1,015 achieved SVR12. In ASTRAL-4, patients with decompensated cirrhosis receiving Epclusa with RBV for 12 weeks achieved a high SVR12 rate (94 percent) compared to those who received Epclusa for 12 weeks or 24 weeks (83% and 86%, respectively).
Headache and fatigue were the most common adverse reactions (≥10 percent) noted in the trials. In the 87 HCV-infected patients with decompensated cirrhosis treated with Epclusa and ribavirin in the ASTRAL-4 study, fatigue, anemia, nausea, headache, insomnia and diarrhea were the most common adverse reactions (≥10 percent). Two and four patients treated with Epclusa and Epclusa with RBV respectively discontinued treatment due to adverse events.
Epclusa should not be administered with ribavirin in patients for whom ribavirin is contraindicated.
