Telaprevir is a pharmaceutical drug for the treatment of hepatitis C. It is a member of a class of antiviral drugs known as protease inhibitors. Specifically, telaprevir inhibits the hepatitis C viral enzyme NS3.4A serine protease. Telaprevir is only indicated for use against hepatitis c genotype 1 viral infections and hasn´t been proven to have an effect on or being safe when used for other genotypes of the virus. The standard therapy of pegylated interferon and ribavirin is less effective on genotype 1 and telaprevir offers a welcome addition to the treatment of this genotype. In a randomized controlled trial (ADVANCE) of patients in whom standard treatment with peginterferon alfa-2a and ribavirin had failed, repeat treatment with the addition of telaprevir was more likely to have a sustained virological response (SVR) than repeat treatment with peginterferon alfa-2a and ribavirin alone.
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