Sofosbuvir/velpatasvir: a pangenotypic drug to simplify HCV therapy

Treatment for chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) has evolved rapidly from an interferon based regimen of modest efficacy with significant adverse events to a well-tolerated, highly effective all-oral directly acting antiviral (DAA) therapy. Although significant improvement in sustained virologic responses (SVR) has been reported with new DAAs for genotypes 1 and 4, effective treatments for genotype 3 have been lacking, and a single pill that can yield high SVR rates against HCV genotypes 1–6 has not been available until now. Sofosbuvir (a pangenotypic NS5B inhibitor) and velpatasvir (a pangenotypic NS5A inhibitor) were recently approved in a fixed-dose combination pill. The availability of this pangenotypic pill holds promise for providing highly effective treatment with minimal laboratory testing for chronic HCV worldwide.