Tolerability Profile and Therapeutic Responses of Unipeg® plus Ribavirin in Patients with Untreated Chronic HCV Genotype 2 or 3 Infection

Abstract

Aim: To investigate the tolerability potential and therapeutic feedback of Unipeg® plus Ribavirin in untreated patients of chronic hepatitis C disease Methods: A non randomized prospective clinical trial was conducted on ninety two patients of chronic hepatitis C with genotype 2 and 3 who were never treated with any antiviral based therapy previously. These patients were prescribed Unipeg® and Ribavarin at a dose of 180μg/week & 1000-1200/day respectively as a combination regime for a period of 24 weeks. Different virological as well as treatment responses were observed at specific intervals of time while safety profile of treatment regime were noted by both general physical as well as complete blood examination Results: All patients completed the study with mean age of 36.12+10.79 years in which two third was male. A significant changes were seen in hematological parameters in terms of mean hemoglobin and WBC count which decreased in a linear fashion from start to end of treatment with p-values <0.001 and <0.001 respectively. There was no significant effect of antiviral regime on platelets counts (p-value 0.90). The neutrophil count decreased at 4th week while increased at 12th and 24th week as compared to baseline value (p-value <0.02). Conclusion: The therapeutic responses and safety profile of UNIPEG® and ribavirin combination has similar outcome to most others brand available (PEG-INF α-2a) in the market.