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Standard therapy for chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection consists of peginterferon plus ribavirin, but response rates for black patients and those infected with genotype 1 virus are suboptimal. In two industry-sponsored randomized trials, researchers examined whether the protease inhibitor boceprevir, added to standard therapy, improves response rates in patients with chronic HCV genotype 1 infection.
In one study, 1100 previously untreated patients received standard peginterferon–ribavirin therapy or one of two different dosing regimens of triple therapy (peginterferon–ribavirin plus boceprevir). Among whites, sustained virologic response rates were significantly higher in the triple-therapy groups than in the standard-treatment group…