Published in:
Open Access
01-03-2016 | Original Article
High adherence to all-oral directly acting antiviral HCV therapy among an inner-city patient population in a phase 2a study
Authors:
Tess Petersen, Kerry Townsend, Lori A. Gordon, Sreetha Sidharthan, Rachel Silk, Amy Nelson, Chloe Gross, Monica Calderón, Michael Proschan, Anu Osinusi, Michael A. Polis, Henry Masur, Shyam Kottilil, Anita Kohli
Published in:
Hepatology International
|
Issue 2/2016
Login to get access
Abstract
Background
As treatment for chronic hepatitis C (HCV) virus has evolved to all-oral, interferon-free directly acting antiviral (DAA) therapy, the impact of these improvements on patient adherence has not been described.
Methods
Medication
adherence was measured in 60 HCV, genotype-1, treatment-naïve participants enrolled in a phase 2a clinical trial at the National Institutes of Health and community clinics. Participants received either ledipasvir/sofosbuvir (LDV/SOF) (90 mg/400 mg) (one pill) daily for 12 weeks, LDV/SOF + GS-9451 (80 mg/day) (two pills) daily for 6 weeks, or LDV/SOF + GS-9669 (500 mg twice daily; three pills, two in the morning, one in the evening) for 6 weeks. Adherence was measured using medication event monitoring system (MEMS) caps, pill counts and patient report.
Results
Overall adherence to DAAs was high. Adherence declined over the course of the 12-week treatment (p = 0.04). While controlled psychiatric disease or symptoms of depression did not influence adherence, recent drug use was a risk factor for non-adherence to 12-week (p = 0.01), but not 6-week regimens. Adherence as measured by MEMS was lower than by patient report.
Conclusions
Adherence to short courses of DAA therapy with 1–3 pills a day was excellent in an urban population with multiple risk factors for non-adherence.