November 6, 2013- Interviewed by Steven E. Greer, MD
In Part 1, Sammy Saab, MD, MPH, liver disease and GI doctor from UCLA, discusses the standard of care for hepatitis C, which is 48-weeks of interferon with ribavirin. He then discusses the new protease inhibitor drugs, Incivek and Victrelis, and why their bad side effect profile limited usage despite higher cure rates.
In Part 2, Dr. Saab discusses the data on the new all-oral therapies that do not require the toxic interferon injections, are only 12-weeks of therapy, and have much higher cure rates approaching 100% SVR. He mentions Gilead’s sofosbuvir, the Abbvie cocktail of drugs, and others.