Why carry out this study?

Short-duration, pangenotypic direct-acting antivirals (DAA), such as glecaprevir/pibrentasvir (G/P), are increasingly important therapies, which can support countries’ paths to meet the World Health Organization’s target to eliminate hepatitis C virus (HCV).

Following a recent label (SmPC and USPI) update for G/P based on the EXPEDITION-8 study, there is a lack of large-scale real-world studies of similar magnitude (343 patients) for 8-week G/P therapy in treatment-naïve (TN) patients with compensated cirrhosis (CC). This review of smaller real-world studies will provide an up-to-date reference for clinicians making treatment decisions for patients with CC that may benefit from a shorter-duration therapy with G/P.

This review summarizes data from seven independent real-world studies to examine the effectiveness and safety of G/P treatment in HCV-infected TN patients with CC in clinical practice.

What was learned from the study?

G/P therapy for 8 weeks showed high effectiveness, with numerically high sustained virologic response rates at post-treatment week 12 (an average of 98.1% across cohorts), and was well tolerated.

This review can reassure providers that the results obtained across smaller real-world studies are collectively similar to that of EXPEDITION-8, where 343 patients were enrolled. This shorter treatment for TN patients with CC may also be beneficial in hard-to-reach populations.