Hepatitis C Drug Combination May Lead To Faster Recovery, Lower Death Rate Among COVID-19 Patients

Coronavirus cases in the United States have crossed 3 million cases, and the numbers continue to rise. It was found in a small sample of patients that more hospitalized people who were given a combination of hepatitis C virus medications experienced improvements in their symptoms than those receiving control medication.

Treatment with combination of drugs sofosbuvir and daclatasvir (SOF/DCV) -- one of the best and safest options to treat chronic hepatitis C infection -- appears promising in eliminating the SARS-CoV-2. Three clinical trials conducted in Iran revealed 94% of COVID-19 patients treated with SOF/DCV combination recovered from COVID-19 within two weeks of treatment.

The experts at the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom who reported this also mentioned only a few number of COVID-19 patients who received this drug combination experienced fatalities compared to others.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the United States' National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who was a panelist at the press conference called this research encouraging and provocative.

"We desperately need antivirals that can be given early on in the course of the disease to prevent individuals from going on to require hospitalization, so I would encourage ... we do further studies on this to nail this down in a randomized controlled trial," Med Page Today quoted Fauci.

The FDA approved the drug daclatasvir in 2015 alongside the use of sofosbuvir as the first 12-week, all-oral treatment option for individuals suffering from chronic hepatitis C genotype 3 infections.

Laboratory studies found daclatasvir to have antiviral activity against the deadly novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The researchers opined the drug also penetrates well into the infected individual’s lungs where the infection could be concentrated. However, the researchers highlighted further study was required to come to any conclusions.

Even though hep-c drug combination treatment against COVID-19 had promising results, the researchers believe it was too early to reach a verdict on it because there was a possibility the therapies that appear promising in early trials might fail afterward.

“We need to remember conducting research amidst a pandemic with overwhelmed hospitals is a clear challenge. Some of the doctors working on the trial have gotten sick themselves,” Med Page Today quoted Andrew Hill of the University of Liverpool.