The majority of hepatitis C patients treated with direct acting antivirals are at risk for relevant drug-drug interactions.

BACKGROUND: Direct-acting antivirals have improved treatment of chronic hepatitis C virus infection significantly. Direct-acting antivirals inhibit/induce and can also be substrates of drug-metabolising enzymes and transporters. This increases the risk for drug-drug interactions.
OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to predict drug-drug interactions with co-medication used by hepatitis C virus-infected patients.
METHODS: We assembled a nationwide cohort of hepatitis C patients and collected cross-sectional data on co-medication use. We compiled a list of currently available direct-acting antiviral regimens and cross-checked for potential drug-drug interactions with used co-medication.
RESULTS: The cohort included 461 patients of which 77% used co-medication. We identified 260 drugs used as co-medication. Antidepressants (7.4%), proton pump inhibitors (7.1%) and benzodiazepines (7.1%) were most frequently used. Of the patients, 60% were at risk for a clinically relevant drug-drug interaction with at least one of the direct-acting antiviral regimens. Interactions were most common with paritaprevir/ritonavir/ombitasvir/dasabuvir and least interactions were predicted with grazoprevir/elbasvir.
CONCLUSION: Co-medication use is rich in frequency and diversity in chronic hepatitis C patients. The majority of patients are at risk for drug-drug interactions which may affect efficacy or toxicity of direct-acting antivirals or co-medication. The most recently introduced direct-acting antivirals are associated with a lower risk of drug-drug interactions.