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Future Treatment of Hepatitis C: What will be the Fate of Ribavirin?
Melissa Palmer*Department of Clinical Research and Head of Hepatology Kadmon Corporation, New York University, USA
- *Corresponding Author:
- Melissa Palmer
Senior Vice President
Department of Clinical Research
and Head of Hepatology Kadmon Corporation
New York University, USA
E-mail: drpalmer@liverdisease.com
Received date: January 02, 2013; Accepted date: January 03, 2013; Published date: January 05, 2013
Citation: Palmer M (2013) Future Treatment of Hepatitis C: What will be the Fate of Ribavirin? J Gastroint Dig Syst 3:e113. doi:10.4172/2161-069X.1000e113
Copyright: © 2013 Palmer M. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
When I began my career as a hepatologist in 1988 there were no treatments for viral hepatitis. In fact, hepatitis C (HCV), then known as non-A, non-B (NANB) hepatitis, was not discovered until the following year. Almost a decade passed before treatment for HCV became available that resulted in acceptable Sustained Virologic Response (SVR) rates (now known to be consistent with virologic cure) - a combination of Interferon alpha (IFN) plus Ribavirin (RBV). Prior to this pairing, less than 10% of HCV patients achieved a SVR when treated with IFN alone. With combination therapy, SVR rates rose to approximately 40-50%.
