One thing that we need to keep in mind is that most of us in the US and Western Europe have GT1 and, although the SVR rate in this study is 100 per cent, it includes only 3 people!!
I am wondering why Romark included only 3 people with common but hard to cure GT 1.
Although I am cautiously optimistic, I really want to see some studies for GT1 which include more subjects.
It would be fantastic if Riba was eliminated. I had mono therapy in acute stage, and found it to be extremly mild treatment in comparsion to combo therapy. The removal of Riba, if possible, will make the lives of all people treating much much better.
From the study......
"These data indicate that when using nitazoxanide, ribavirin (which helps prevent relapse) may not be needed to maintain a sustained response, suggested Romark Chief Medical Officer and study co-investigator Emmet Keeffe."
Wow, imagine if this pans out! Tox would be soooo much more tolerable.
ALLRIGHT! Some encouraging news for sure.
one thing that impressed me re: the original study was HR's discussion with the Eyptian doc afterthe lecture. Even though he used primarily the immigrant uninsured populace for his study he kept very close tabs on their meds compliance.
I believe that entire discussion and HR's take is on Gauf's homepage journal.
The problem for Romark is that Alinia has already entered the market as a standard antidiarrheal drug used around the world. So, they can't control the price / limit the application to Hep C now. While the extra sales are good news for them, the drug would have made a lot more money if it had been witheld from other applications, with an inflated price for Hep C patients. I have no doubt that the new Hep C specific treatments will be very expensive by contrast.
Good and bad news for us. Any new drugs coming onto the market now will not only have to prove to be effective, but will also have to prove they are more effective than Alinia, otherwise people will choose the "cheap" Alinia, not the expensive Veretex, or whatever else. The bad news is that this then represents an extra economic hurdle for any Hep C drugs in development, so some of them may be more likely to be pulled out of trials.
By the way, IF there was ANY way I could buy a piece of Romark( the private co. that makes Alinia) I WOULD!!! jerry
This was one of the studies I used to make my decision to add Alinia to my tx. I had the eairlier report of this trail, that did not yet include SVR info, only EOT, as well as the one released in Boston last year. DID ANYONE NOTICE THAT THE 4 WEEK LEAD_IN ARM WAS----ribavironLESS!!!!!!!!---Alinia and Peg ONLY with a 80% SVR rate. WAKE UP folks this stuff is SOMETHING that deserves more attention. I know this arm only had 44 patients but STILL!! Every time someone joins the forum saying "I just started txing, 1wk ago, 1 month ago, 1 day, whatever I cringe. NO WAY I WOULD NOT ADD ALINIA TO SOC knowing what we know today. jerry
OK...i see now...thank you
This study included 44 patients enrolled at the University of Tanta in Egypt, where genotype 4 is the predominant HCV type. Almost all (40 patients) had genotype 4, but 3 had genotype 1, and 1 had genotype 2.
Yes...but the sample size was small, only 3 G1, 1 G2. Still 100% is 100% and good!
AMAZING NEWS...am i reading this correctly...1005 cure rate for geno 1?
All genotype 1 and 2 patients experienced cEVR, ETR, and SVR.
• SVR rates were 78% for genotype 4, 100% for genotype 1, and 100% for genotype 2
Thanks so much for posting this encouraging report.
Isn't it interesting that the 4 wk lead in had better results than the 12 week...??
Good news for all considering tx'ing soon. I'm glad you're on it too!!!
Isobella