Patients with genotype 3 hepatitis C who have advanced liver disease (cirrhosis) have a very
high chance of developing fatal complications of their disease unless they receive effective
treatment. Unfortunately the best drugs that are currently available to treat genotype 3
hepatitis C (pegylated interferon and ribavirin) only work in about 50% of patients with
advanced liver disease and therefore a large number of patients who have failed treatment are
waiting for new, better drugs. Currently there are no treatments available for these
patients. Telaprevir is a new drug that is licensed to treat genotype 1 hepatitis C and which
works very well in these patients. In patients with genotype 3 hepatitis C small scale trials
and laboratory studies show that some patients do respond quite well and others respond a
little bit when given telaprevir. In patients who have exhausted all other treatment options
the investigators speculate that telaprevir treatment may help some patients by clearing
their infection. The purpose of this study is to see if telaprevir can help these patients
and to determine if the investigators can predict in advance which people can be helped.
Phase:
Phase 4
Details
Lead Sponsor:
Queen Mary University of London
Collaborators:
Barts & The London NHS Trust Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Janssen-Cilag Ltd. Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust St George's Healthcare NHS Trust