Telaprevir-based therapy for treatment of HIV-1 and hepatitis C virus co-infected patients: An early access programme

- We studied telaprevir in HCV/HIV coinfected individuals with severe advanced liver disease.
- Sixty-six percent of patients achieved SVR.
- The most common adverse events were of haematological nature.
- Discontinuation for adverse events was uncommon.

SummaryObjectivesHPC3005 is a multicentre, open-label, telaprevir trial in HCV/HIV coinfected patients with severe fibrosis or compensated cirrhosis.MethodsPatients were treated with telaprevir 750 mg every 8 h (1125 mg if on efavirenz) plus pegylated interferon-alpha (PEG-IFN, 180 μg once-weekly) and ribavirin (RBV, 800 mg/day) for 12 weeks, followed by 36 weeks of PEG-IFN/RBV.ResultsMean age was 44 years, 97/118 patients were male and all were Caucasian, 68 had severe fibrosis and 50 had cirrhosis. Seventy-eight had HCV RNA levels ≥800 000 IU/mL, 72 had HCV genotype 1a, baseline HIV RNA was <50 copies/mL in 112 patients. Overall, 114/118 patients continued antiretroviral treatment, 4 were untreated. Seventy-five patients received tenofovir and 74 emtricitabine; in addition 53 received atazanavir/ritonavir, 43 raltegravir, and 24 efavirenz. By intention-to-treat, 78 (66%) patients achieved SVR24. Nineteen discontinued telaprevir, 8 for virological endpoint, 5 for adverse events (2 anaemia, 2 rash, 1 asthenia), 5 for non-compliance and 1 withdrew consent. The most common adverse events were anaemia (36 patients), thrombocytopaenia (33), rash (26), bilirubin increase (17), and neutropenia (16).ConclusionsIn this early access programme in coinfected patients with severe fibrosis or cirrhosis, 66% of patients achieved SVR. The most common adverse events were haematological.Clinical Trial Number: NCT01500616.