Hepatitis C treatment options

[funnsun]

I was wondering if there have been any studies comparing Pegasys and Pegintron, and if one has better SVR numbers than the other or was more tolerable.
I am new here so I hope I am posting this in the correct forum.

[DragonSlayer45]

Yes they have compared them in something called the IDEAL Study. However that trial was sponsored by Schering Plough, the makers of PegInton. Dr. Dietrich wrote an excellent article that addresses this study.

http://www.natap.org/2008/HCV/011408_02.htm

There are people here who say the sides are better with pegasys, some say the opposite. Some say they cleared on one after doing a previous treatment the another. From what I understand the biggest difference in the 2 drugs is the molecule size with PegIntron being smaller.

In my opinion, which drug you take is of a lesser importance than other factors. Length of infection, genotype, Viral load, overweight, etc. If you look at the numbers there is not a big enough difference in SVR numbers to make any argument that is worthwhile. I am on pegasys but that is because I am in a trial for a polymerase inhibitor called R7128 which is done in conjunction with Roche, who makes pegasys and copegus. The trial gives all three drugs.

For what it is worth I was told by others that pegasys  sides were more tolerable than PegIntron but you know what, if they are it still *****! LOL

I hope this helps and welcome to the forum.

[Kerfluffle]

The IDEAL study was done by the manufacturer of Pegintron and, perhaps not surprisingly, shows that there is little difference in SVR rates between Pegintron and Pegasys (a competing product).

Other studies however have shown a greater difference between the two products:

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http://www.natap.org/2008/EASL/EASL_86.htm

An Italian study (A Ascione) reported results in an oral presentation in the same session just prior to the IDEAL Study presentation. The Italian study compared Pegasys with PegIntron in a prospective, randomized, open-label, single-center trial in 320 treatment-naives. Ribavirin was dosed the same for both arms: 1000 mg/day for patients 75 kg. Median HCV RNA was about 600,000 IU/ml. 66% were genotype 1 and 33-41% were genotype 2-3.

Overall SVR rate was 68% for Pegasys and 54%. For genotype 1-4, SVR was 55% for Pegasys and 40% for PegIntron.

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