Search

Background:  Hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype (GT) 1 is the most common HCV GT in Western and Central Europe. The main focus of this present work is to analyze the change of baseline characteristics of 17 093 HCV-patients with genotype 1a/1b with antiviral therapy in Germany between 2004 and 2018. We analyzed five periods: (i) 2004-2007, (ii) 2008-2010, (iii) 2010-2013, (iv) 2014-2016, (v) 2017-2018., Methods:  The present analysis is based on five German non-interventional registry studies and comprises data on 17 093 HCV-GT1 patients documented between 2004 and 2018 [ML17071, ML19464, ML21645, ML25724 (Peginterferon alfa-2a ® non-interventional study [PAN]) and the German Hepatitis C-Registry (DHC-R)., Findings:  Overall, 7662 patients were infected with HCV GT1a and 9431 patients with HCV GT1b. GT1a patients were younger (46.5 years vs. 51.2 years) and more often male (70 % vs. 52 %). Previous or ongoing drug abuse was documented more frequently for GT1a patients throughout the study periods with highest frequencies in the most recent period (2017-2018; 44 % for GT1a and 10.3 % for GT1b). Metabolic comorbidities, such as those who are overweight and those with diabetes mellitus, were associated with HCV GT1b-infected women. The GT1a ratio increased from 33.6 % (2004-2007) to 50 % (2017-2018). A relevant change in the GT1a/1b ratio was observed over time in men (2004-2007: 38 %/63 %; 2017-2018: 59 %/41 %). In contrast, only 30 % of women had GT1a infection throughout all study periods without relevant changes. There were no regional differences within Germany in HCV GT1a/1b distribution despite a higher proportion of GT1b-infected women in East Germany in 2004-2007 (86 %)., Conclusion:  A marked increase of GT1a infection associated with drug use was observed in men, but not women, in Germany between 2004 and 2018. The present data show a fundamental change in HCV epidemiology, which has an impact on therapy management and general care of hepatitis C patients in Germany., Competing Interests: Karl-Georg Simon hat in den letzten 3 Jahren Zuwendungen (z. B. Vortragshonorare, Forschungsgelder oder Beraterhonorare) erhalten von: AbbVie GmbH & Co.KG, Falk Pharma, Gilead Sciences GmbH, MSD Sharp & Dohme GmbH.Yvonne Serfert hat keine Interessenkonflikte.Peter Buggisch hat in den letzten 3 Jahren Zuwendungen (z. B. Vortragshonorare, Forschungsgelder oder Beraterhonorare) erhalten von: AbbVie, Gilead, MSD.Stefan Mauss hat in den letzten 3 Jahren Zuwendungen (z. B. Vortragshonorare, Forschungsgelder oder Beraterhonorare) erhalten von: AbbVie, Gilead, MSD.Klaus H. W. Boeker hat in den letzten 3 Jahren Zuwendungen (z. B. Vortragshonorare, Forschungsgelder oder Beraterhonorare) erhalten von: AbbVie, Gilead.Hartwig Klinker hat in den letzten 3 Jahren Zuwendungen (z. B. Vortragshonorare, Forschungsgelder oder Beraterhonorare) erhalten von: AbbVie, BMS, Gilead, Janssen, MSDTobias Müller hat keine Interessenkonflikte.Uta Merle hat in den letzten 3 Jahren Zuwendungen (z. B. Vortragshonorare, Forschungsgelder oder Beraterhonorare) erhalten von: CSL-Behring, FALK.Dietrich Hüppe hat in den letzten 3 Jahren Zuwendungen (z. B. Vortragshonorare, Forschungsgelder oder Beraterhonorare) erhalten von: AbbVie GmbH & Co. KG, Falk Pharma, Ferring Arzneimittel GmbH.Michael P. Manns hat in den letzten 3 Jahren Zuwendungen (z. B. Vortragshonorare, Forschungsgelder oder Beraterhonorare) erhalten von: AbbVie, BMS, Gilead, Merck (MSD)Heiner Wedemeyer hat in den letzten 3 Jahren Zuwendungen (z. B. Vortragshonorare, Forschungsgelder oder Beraterhonorare) erhalten von: Abbott, AbbVie, Altimmune, Biotest, BMS, BTG, Dicerna, Gilead, Janssen, Merck/MSD, MYR GmbH, Novartis, Roche, Siemens, Transgene., (Thieme. All rights reserved.)

Despite the high effectiveness of direct-acting antivirals for the treatment of hepatitis C, a small proportion of patients do not respond to approved regimens. The combination regimen of SOF/VEL/VOX was recently approved for patients with failure to prior NS5A-based treatment. In this German real-world cohort including patients with cirrhosis (27.3 %) and previous decompensation events, 12 weeks of SOF/VEL/VOX resulted in high virologic response rates irrespective of disease severity and prior DAA regimen. Adverse events were mostly mild or moderate and comparable to those seen in the approval studies., Competing Interests: Johannes Vermehren: sponsored lectures (national oriInternational): AbbVie, Gilead, Intercept, Merck. Markus Cornberg: sponsored lectures (national or international): AbbVie, Gilead, Merck/MSD, Siemens Healthcare, Falk Foundation e. V.; other: advisory committee or review panel: Merck/MSD, AbbVie, Spring. Albrecht Stoehr: grants: Abbvie, Bristol-Myers-Squibb, Gilead, Janssen, MSD, ViiV; sponsored lectures (national or international): AbbVie, Bristol-Myers-Squibb, Gilead, Janssen, MSD, ViiV; other: advisory boards: AbbVie, Bristol-Myers-Squibb, Gilead, Janssen, MSD, ViiV. Hartwig Klinker: grants: Abbvie, BMS, Gilead, Janssen, MSD; sponsored lectures (national or international): AbbVie, BMS, Gilead, Janssen, MSD; other: advisory boards: AbbVie, BMS, Gilead, Hexal, Janssen, MSD. Karl-Georg Simon: sponsored lectures (national or international): AbbVie, FALK, Gilead, MSD; other: advisory committee or review panel: AbbVie, MSD. Gerlinde Teuber: sponsored lectures (national or international): AbbVie, Gilead Sciences, Intercept, MSD; other: advisory committee or review panel: AbbVie, Gilead. Katja Deterding: sponsored lectures (national or international): AbbVie, Gilead, Merck/MSD; other: advisory committee: Gilead, AbbVie. Julian Schulze zur Wiesch: sponsored lectures: Gilead, MSD, AbbVie. Maria-Christina Jung: nothing to disclose. Yvonne Serfert: nothing to disclose. Michael P. Manns: grants: AbbVie, BMS, Janssen, Gilead, Merck (MSD); sponsored lectures (national or international): AbbVie, BMS, Janssen, Gilead, Merck (MSD); consultant: AbbVie, BMS, Janssen, Gilead, Merck (MSD). Stefan Zeuzem: consultancies and lecture honoria: AbbVie, Gilead, Intercept, Janssen, Merck/MSD. Heiner Wedemeyer: reports personal fees from Transgene, MSD, Roche, Gilead, Abbott, BMS, Falk, AbbVie, Novartis, GSK, Roche Diagnostics, Eiger, ITF, and MyrGmbH; grants/research support from MSD, Novartis, Gilead, Roche, Abbott, and Roche Diagnostics. Christoph Sarrazin: grants: Abbott, Gilead, Janssen, Qiagen, Roche, Siemens; sponsored lectures (national or international): Abbott, AbbVie, Achillion, BMS, Gilead, Janssen, Merck/MSD, Qiagen, Roche, Siemens; other: advisory boards: Abbott, AbbVie, BMS, Gilead, Janssen, Merck/MSD, Roche., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

Background:  Virologic failure to approved combinations of direct antiviral agents (DAA) in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is rare. Mostly it involves difficult to treat patients with advanced liver disease and prior interferon-experience. Before approval of VOX/VEL/SOF, a restricted number of patients received rescue treatment, and the choice of DAA combinations for re-treatment were selected on an individual basis. In the present analysis, patient characteristics and rescue-regimens after virologic failure mainly based on first generation DAAs are described., Patients and Methods:  Data were obtained from the German Hepatitis C-Registry (DHC-R), which is a national multicenter real-world cohort currently including about 16 500 patients recruited by more than 250 centers. The present analysis is based on 6683 patients who initiated a DAA therapy and for whom follow-up data (per-protocol analysis) were available., Results:  Among the patients, 188 (2.8 %) experienced a virologic relapse. Compared to SVR-patients, relapse patients were significantly more often male (77.7 % versus 56.9 %, respectively, p < 0.001), showed cirrhosis significantly more (48.4 % versus 28.1 %, respectively, p < 0.001) and a prior interferon-containing therapy (46.3 % versus 39.0 %, respectively, p = 0.049). The majority of patients who relapsed were infected with genotype 1 (47.4 %) followed by genotype 3 (29.8 %), and 95 relapse patients started DAA re-treatment. Characteristics of patients with rescue-treatment are similar to these of patients with relapse after initial DAA treatment. Thirty-one of 39 patients with complete follow-up data achieved SVR (79.5 %), and 8 patients had a relapse again (20.5 %). Patients who received rescue treatment including a new DAA class according to guidelines, except patients who received VOX/VEL/SOF, showed higher SVR rates than the entire group (21/25, 84 %). All patients who received VOX/VEL/SOF achieved SVR (n = 4, 100 %)., Conclusions:  Patients with failure with DAA combination therapies are a difficult but urgent to treat population with the frequent presence of cirrhosis and prior treatment failure with interferon-based therapies. Rescue therapy with inclusion of a new DAA class leads to high SVR rates, but multiple targeted therapy with VOX/VEL/SOF seems to be most effective., Competing Interests: Annika Schmitt: consulting: AbbVieRainer Günther: has nothing to discloseStefan Mauss: sponsored lectures (national or international): Gilead, AbbVie, MSD; advisory committee or review panel: Gilead, AbbVie, MSDKlaus H.W. Boeker: speaking and teaching: AbbVie, Gilead, MSDPeter Buggisch: advisory committee or review panel: AbbVie, Gilead, MSD, Intercept; speaking and teaching: AbbVie, Gilead, Falk, Merz, MSD, NorgineHeribert Hillenbrand: has nothing to discloseChristine John: has nothing to discloseHartwig Klinker: advisory committee or review panel: AbbVie, BMS, Gilead, Hexal, Janssen, MSD, Shionogi; grant/research support: AbbVie, Arrowhead, BMS, Janssen, Gilead, MSD, Novartis; speaking and teaching: AbbVie, BMS, Gilead, Janssen, MSDAnita Pathil: consultant: AbbVie; sponsored lectures (National or International): AbbVie, BMS, Gilead, JanssenKarl-Georg Simon: advisory committee or review panel: AbbVie, Gilead, MSD; speaking and teaching: AbbVie, FALK, Gilead, MSDYvonne Serfert: has nothing to discloseClaus Niederau: grants: AbbVie, Falk, Genzyme, Gilead, MSD, Novartis, Shire; consultant: AbbVie, Alexion, Genzyme, Gilead, Janssen, MSD, Shire; sponsored lectures: (National or International): AbbVie, Alexion, Biogen, BMS, Falk, Genzyme, Gilead, Janssen, MSD, Novartis, ShireJohannes Vermehren: sponsored lectures (national or international): AbbVie, Gilead, Intercept, Merck.Heiner Wedemeyer: personal fees from Transgene, MSD, Roche, Gilead, Abbott, BMS, Falk, AbbVie, Novartis, GSK, Roche Diagnostics, Eiger, ITF, and MyrGmbH; grants/research support from MSD, Novartis, Gilead, Roche, Abbott, and Roche Diagnostics.Christoph Sarrazin: speaker and consultation for AbbVie, Gilead, MSD/Merck, (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

Background:  The urgent need in HCV-infected patients with liver disease mandated the rapid implementation of IFN-free DAA combination therapies following their regulatory approval in 2014 and 2015 without full knowledge of the optimal combinations and regimens. Investigating the evolution of the DAA utilization patterns and treatment outcomes could provide learnings for future situations., Methods:  This was an analysis of a prospective observational database from the German Hepatitis C Registry (DHC-R) covering a period from May 2014 to September 2015. Adult patients had evidence of chronic HCV GT1 or GT4 infection and were treated with an IFN-free combination regimen of simeprevir (SMV) + sofosbuvir (SOF) or other IFN-free regimens: daclatasvir + sofosbuvir (DCV + SOF), ledipasvir/sofosbuvir (SOF/LDV), paritaprevir/r + ombitasvir ± dasabuvir (PrOD), with or without ribavirine (R)., Results:  A total of 5496 subjects were followed during the period. During this period, clinical recommendations and treatment patterns evolved rapidly in response to new evidence from clinical trials and clinical routine and regulatory approval of additional regimens. High SVR12 rates were seen in this cohort, even in hard-to-treat patient subgroups. In the multivariate analysis, gender, age, advanced cirrhosis, and intensified treatment for cirrhotics were associated with treatment outcome., Conclusion:  Despite limited knowledge of the optimal utilization of the newly approved DAA combinations and treatment durations as well as their comparative efficacy and safety profiles, high SVR rates were achieved regardless of the DAA combination. These outcomes were facilitated by the rapid adaptation of clinical recommendations. Future situations with high unmet medical need may follow a similar approach., Competing Interests: CS has received speaker and consultancy fees from Abbvie, Abbott, BMS, Gilead, Janssen, Merck and Siemens.PB has received speaker and consultancy fees from AbbVie, Falk, Gilead, Merz Pharma and MSD.SM has received speaker and consultancy fees from AbbVie, Gilead, Janssen and MSD.TM has received speaker and consultancy fees from AbbVie, Falk, Intercept, Gilead, MSD, Novartis and Roche.TZ has received speaker and consultancy fees from AbbVie, Astellas, BMS, Boehringer Ingelheim, Gilead Sciences, Janssen, MSD, Novartis, and Roche.HK has received speaker and consultancy fees from AbbVie, BMS, Gilead, Hexal, Janssen and MSD.AP has received speaker and consultancy fees from Janssen, Gilead, AbbVie und BMS.MS is an employee of Janssen.CN is an employee of Janssen.ILD is an employee of Janssen.KGS has received speaker and consultancy fees from AbbVie, BMS, Janssen, Falk, Gilead, Norgine, Merz, MSD., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

Background: With the aging of the hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected patient cohort and the availability of highly effective and tolerable treatment regimens, an increasing number of elderly patients are now eligible for HCV therapy. This study investigated clinical and epidemiologic characteristics of elderly HCV-infected patients as well as the effectiveness and safety of available therapies., Methods: Patients were enrolled into the German Hepatitis C Registry (DHC-R), a prospective, multicenter, real-world cohort study. Patients were treated at the discretion of the physician, and data were collected by a web-based system., Results: Of 7133 patients who initiated treatment, 686 (9.6%) were > 70 years of age. In patients > 70 years, intent-to-treat (ITT) SVR12 was 92.6% (514/555) compared to 90.7% (4521/4985) in patients ≤ 70 years of age. Overall, adverse events (AEs) were reported in 374 (54.5%) and 3435 patients (53.3%) > 70 or ≤ 70 years of age; 7.6% (52) and 3.6% (235) in the respective age groups had a serious AE. Twenty-two (3.2%) and 62 (1.0%) of the patients > 70 or ≤ 70 years discontinued treatment due to AEs. Death was reported in 34 patients, of whom eight were > 70 years of age. Frequent comorbidities in patients > 70 years of age were cardiac disease, renal disease and diabetes. Psychiatric disorders, substance abuse and viral co-infection were more frequent in younger patients., Conclusion: Direct-acting antiviral therapies were well tolerated in patients older than 70 years. SVR12 rates in the elderly patient group were similar to those observed in younger patients. Differences in the prevalence of comorbidities between age groups warrant individualized attention with respect to drug-drug interactions and therapy adherence. The study was registered in the German Clinical Trials Register, DRKS-ID: DRKS00009717.

There are limited data regarding the real world effectiveness of direct acting antivirals (DAA) for the therapy of chronic genotype 3 hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. All HCV genotype 3 infected patients from the German hepatitis C cohort (GECCO), which is a prospective database of nine German hepatitis C treatment centers, were included in the study. Three hundred forty-two chronically infected HCV genotype 3 patients were analyzed (253 males [74.0%], mean age 47.3 years, 127 cirrhotic patients [37.1%] mostly with Child A cirrhosis, 113 treatment experienced patients [37.1%], 38 HCV/HIV co-infected patients [11.1%]). SVR12 rates in the "intention-to-treat" analysis were as follows: sofosbuvir/ribavirin 69.4% (75/108), sofosbuvir/peginterferon/ribavirin 80.6% (58/72), sofosbuvir/daclatasvir ± ribavirin for 12 weeks 88.3% (53/63), sofosbuvir/daclatasvir ± ribavirin for 24 weeks 79.3% (23/29), sofosbuvir/ledipasvir ± ribavirin for 12 weeks 71.4% (10/14), and sofosbuvir/ledipasvir ± ribavirin for 24 weeks 86.7% (26/30). Forty patients were lost to follow-up, 23 patients had a relapse, 4 patients stopped treatment prematurely and 1 patient died. Female sex (P = 0.038) and treatment with two different DAAs (P = 0.05) were predictors for SVR12 in the multivariate analysis. In conclusion, sofosbuvir/daclatasvir ± ribavirin for 12 weeks and sofosbuvir/ledipasvir ± ribavirin for 24 weeks are effective for the treatment of HCV genotype 3 infected patients including cirrhotic, treatment-experienced or HIV/HCV co-infected patients., (© 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)