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.