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Studies look at interactions between new hepatitis C drugs and HIV antiretrovirals
Liz Highleyman, 2012-03-14 08:50:00
Drug-drug interactions between direct-acting antiviral agents for hepatitis C and some antiretroviral medications used to treat HIV are common, but are often modest and can be managed with dose adjustments when treating people with HIV/HCV coinfection, researchers reported at the 19th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Seattle.
Approximately one-third of HIV-positive people are coinfected with hepatitis C virus (HCV). Last year's approval of the first direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) for hepatitis C has ushered in a new era of treatment, but these new drugs are not yet approved for coinfected patients, a group that urgently needs better treatment options.
One factor that slows down development of therapies for the coinfected population is concern about drug-drug interactions. Some drugs can raise or lower concentrations of other medications, leading to elevated levels that can cause worse side-effects or reduced levels that can allow viral breakthrough and treatment failure. Ideally, drug interactions should be assessed in laboratory studies and healthy volunteers before new drugs are tested in coinfected patients, but this does not always happen.
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