Highlights from AASLD 2013.

Interim results of the C-WORTHY trial of the nonstructural (NS) 3/4A protease inhibitor MK-5172 and the NS5A replication complex inhibitor MK-8742 suggest that the combination exerts robust virologic suppression in treatment-naive patients with genotype (GT) 1 hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Interim results of C-WORTHY, a phase 2b trial, were reported by Eric Lawitz, MD, of the University of Texas Health Science Center and the Texas Liver Institute in San Antonio, at the annual scientific meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases Liver Meeting 2013, which took place on November 1 to 5 in Washington, DC. Sixty-five treatment-naive, noncirrhotic patients with HCV GT 1a or 1b infection were randomly assigned to receive 12 weeks of either 100 mg/d MK-5172 plus 20 mg/d MK-8742 plus ribavirin (n=22), 100 mg/d MK-5172 plus 50 mg/d MK-8742 plus ribavirin (n=24), or 100 mg/d MK-5172 plus 50 mg/d MK-8742 (n=12). The ribavirin-free regimen included only GT 1b-infected patients. All of the patients in the triple therapy regimen that included MK-8742 at 20 mg/d and all of the patients receiving the ribavirin-free regimen who reached 12 weeks posttreatment had a sustained virologic response (SVR12). Of patients receiving triple therapy that included MK-8742 at 50 mg/d, 96% of the 23 patients who reached 12 weeks posttreatment had a SVR.