Interferon-free therapy of hepatitis C with/without nucleoside polymerase inhibitor

Background: In recent years, numerous potent directly acting antiviral agents (DAAs) have been developed for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C. These exciting developments constitute enormous medical progress, but they also challenge physicians with novel treatment algorithms and legal issues. Aims: This article critically presents recently approved interferon-free regimens and promising regimens in clinical evaluation (phase II–III) for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C in patients without liver cirrhosis. Materials and methods: Recent clinical studies and guidelines for interferon-free therapy of chronic hepatitis C are reviewed. Results and discussion: To date, the vast majority of patients infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) can be cured with the recently approved DAAs sofosbuvir, daclatasvir, ledipasvir, simeprevir, paritaprevir/r, ombitasvir, and dasabuvir. However, modern therapy of hepatitis C is burdened with significant treatment costs, and treatment modalities for HCV genotype 3 still require improvement. A number of additional DAAs are currently in advanced clinical development, which will likely lead to further optimization of hepatitis C therapy including more potent regimens for HCV genotype 3. © 2015, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.