Important about hepatitis C and its treatment by Hepcinat

Hepatitis C is a serious chronic liver disease. Until recently, this disease was considered as incurable. Chronic inflammation caused by a viral infection leads to serious and irreversible structural changes of the liver (cirrhosis) and an increased risk of primary hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer). Treatment of hepatitis C is based on the combined antiviral therapy. Hepatitis C has the ability of RNA replication in hepatocytes. Hepcinat blocks the enzyme RNA polymerase, needed for the virus reproduction. Clinical studies have shown that the use of the drug for 12 weeks as part of a protocol with interferon and ribovirin capable to completely inhibit the replication of viral RNA. During the re-examination, the vast majority of patients treated with the drug had no traces of the hepatitis C virus in the blood.

According to statistics, chronic hepatitis C affects more than 150 million people in the world. HCV infection is considered to be one of the main problems of modern medicine. HCV infection leads to chronic hepatitis, which in turn threatens to complications such as prevalent fibrosis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Every year, diseases caused by HCV infection kill more than 350,000 people and 3.4 million people get infected.  Hepatitis C is a major indication for liver transplantation.

For a long time, interferon alpha was considered as the main means of treatment for hepatitis C. At first, doctors applied only interferon alpha, but later they started to combine it with ribavirin.  Until now, in some specific situations, this treatment is considered to be very effective, but it was proved that in most cases, both drugs are poorly tolerated by the body and do not have sufficient effect.

Almost every patient who has ever resorted to such therapy experienced side effects: nearly 40% of the patients experienced joint pain, fever, fainting. Severe side effects are often the cause of procedure termination, especially in the later stages of the disease. Moreover, almost every second HCV-infected patient suffers from individual intolerance to interferon. It is important to note that interferon stimulates the immune system, rather than an immunomodulator. It has a strong effect on the immune system and in conditions of reduced immunity it can lead to disastrous consequences.

Interferon monotherapy proved to be effective only in 6-16% of cases. And combined therapy by interferon and ribavirin made the treatment successful on 30-40%. Success rate of the treatment increased to 75% only with the advent of the first generation of protease inhibitors, boceprevir and telaprevir. These drugs inhibit or block key intracellular stages of virus replication.

Unfortunately, telaprevir and boceprevir are suitable only for a certain type of HCV-infection (so-called first genotype). Thus, a large number of patients for decades had no acceptable treatment. Existing drugs were ineffective, hard for the body and required a long course of treatment. Current treatment of hepatitis C virus with Sovaldi allows patients to get rid of the presence of the virus, preventing serious complications and the risk of further spread of epidemic diseases.

Solvadi is an oral nucleoside polymerase inhibitor of the second generation. It is able to directly attack hepatitis by inhibiting the viral polymerase enzyme NS5B. The main advantage of the drug is its high effectiveness against different genotypes of HCV (1, 2, 3 and 4). For genotypes 1 and 4, Sovaldi with classical therapy of interferon and ribavirin reduces the period of treatment from 48 to 12 weeks and increases success of treatment up to 90%. Hepcinat is quite easily tolerated by the organism. The drug is effective for the treatment of various groups of patients, regardless of the stage of the disease.

Dosage of Sovaldi

The recommended dose of Solvadi is 400 mg tablet, orally, once daily with or without food. Generic Hepcinat should be used in combination with ribavirin, or in combination with interferon and ribavirin for the treatment of HCV (chronic HCV) in adults. Monotherapy with Solvadi is not recommended for the treatment of HCV.

The recommended regimen and duration of treatment with Solvadi in combination therapy:
— Patients with 1 or 4 genotype: Solvadi, interferon alfa, ribavirin. Treatment duration is 12 weeks.
— Patients with 2 genotype: Sovaldi and ribavirin. Treatment duration is 12 weeks.
— Patients with 3 genotype: Sovaldi and ribavirin. Treatment duration is 24 weeks.

Negative effects

The most common side effects in patients receiving ribavirin and Sovaldi include fatigue and headache. Patients taking Solvadi, ribavirin and interferon alfa observe the most common side effects including fatigue, headache, nausea, insomnia and anemia.

Clinical Trials

Sovaldi is the analogue of uridine nucleotide that selectively inhibits NS5B-hepatitis C virus polymerase by inhibiting virus replication. The drug should be used as a component of the regimen against chronic hepatitis C. The regimen may include Sovaldi and ribavirin or Sovaldi by Natco, ribavirin and interferon alfa depending on the type of virus.  Safety and efficacy of the drug were studied in six clinical trials involving 1947 patients including patients infected with the HIV virus. The results showed that the treatment regimen that included Solvadi was effective for the treatment of several types of hepatitis C. Also, the drug has demonstrated efficacy in the treatment of patients with intolerance to interferon-based regimens and patients with liver cancer, waiting for transplantation.

The drug proved to be effective in the treatment of hepatitis first, second, third and fourth genotypes, in patients suffering from a hepatitis C only and in patients with HIV and hepatitis. Clinical studies of the drug showed that the scale of sustained virological response was dependent on many factors, such as fibrosis, cirrhosis and primary resistance of patients to treatment.

Furthermore, only patients suffering from one disease -hepatitis reached the best sustained virological response (50-90 %). In patients suffering from hepatitis and HIV, the scale of sustained virological response has reached 76-92 percent. The drug was well tolerated. The common adverse events were fatigue, nausea, headache, insomnia and anemia.

Cautions

It is not recommended to engage in activities that require attention and speed of reaction during reception of Hepcinat. Pregnancy is undesirable if Hepcinat is used in combination with Ribavirin and Interferon alpha.