Future treatment options for HCV: double, triple, what is the optimal combination?

Specifically Targeted Antiviral Therapy against hepatitis C virus (STAT-C) stands for a new era in the treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis C. Results from recent trials with protease and polymerase inhibitors indicate that therapy with a single HCV specific compound will not be sufficient to eradicate hepatitis C virus infection and that combination therapy will be necessary to improve sustained virologic response rates. The search for the optimal combination of STAT-C compounds with peginterferon alfa with or without ribavirin is currently under investigation in several clinical trials. Overall the current studies indicate that peginterferon alfa and ribavirin remain the backbone of antiviral therapy of chronic hepatitis C even in the era of STAT-C. Nevertheless, it can be anticipated that combination of STAT-C compounds with non-overlapping resistance profiles could improve response to antiviral therapy. Promising combinations are protease inhibitors plus nucleoside analogue and non-nucleoside analogue polymerase inhibitors.