The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved updated labeling for Gilead Sciences’s Epclusa (sofosbuvir 400mg/velpatasvir 100mg), the first all-oral, pan-genotypic, once-daily single tablet regimen (STR) for the treatment of adults with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, to include use in patients co-infected with HIV.
Epclusa received regulatory approval for the treatment of adults with genotype 1-6 chronic HCV infection without cirrhosis or with compensated cirrhosis, or with decompensated cirrhosis in combination with ribavirin, in the United States on June 28, 2016.
Epclusa has a boxed warning in its product label regarding the risk of hepatitis B virus (HBV) reactivation in HCV/HBV co-infected patients. See below for important safety information.
“HCV co-infection remains a major cause of morbidity in HIV-infected individuals. With this expanded use, Epclusa provides co-infected patients with a much needed one-pill-a-day regimen that works across all HCV genotypes and is compatible with widely-used antiretroviral regimens,” said David Wyles, M.D., Chief, Division of Infectious Disease, Denver Health Medical Center; Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Colorado School of Medicine. “With Epclusa, physicians have an important new treatment option for their HCV/HIV co-infected patients.”
Gilead Sciences said that the supplemental new drug application (sNDA) was supported by data from the open-label, Phase 3 ASTRAL-5 study, which evaluated 12 weeks of treatment with Epclusa in 106 subjects with genotype 1-4 HCV infection who were co-infected with HIV and on stable antiretroviral therapy. In the study, 95 percent (101/106) of patients achieved the primary endpoint of SVR12, defined as an undetectable viral load 12 weeks after completing therapy.
The safety profile of Epclusa in HCV/HIV co-infected patients was similar to that observed in HCV mono-infected patients. The most common adverse events (in at least 10 percent of subjects) were fatigue (22 percent) and headache (10 percent).