The study, of 362 people with chronic hepatitis C, found that the new drugs -- combined with one older drug -- cleared the virus from up to 69 percent of patients. And that was without having to use interferon, a difficult-to-take injection drug that is part of the current therapy.
Experts said the findings, published in the Aug. 15 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, are another step forward in vastly improving hepatitis C treatment.
Dozens of drugs are in development, and some are currently being considered for approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
"These are very exciting times in hepatitis C treatment," said Dr. Michael Saag, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham who was not involved in the new study.
Hepatitis C is a liver infection usually passed through contact with infected blood. For most people, the infection becomes chronic, which can eventually lead to scarring of the liver (cirrhosis) or liver cancer years later.
That happens only in a minority of people. "But we have no way of knowing in advance who will develop cirrhosis or cancer," Saag said.
The current drug regimen for chronic hepatitis C includes interferon, plus an older oral drug called ribavirin, and either one of two drugs just approved in the last couple of years, called telaprevir and boceprevir. That combo cures about 68 percent to 75 percent of people with the most common strain of hepatitis C, called genotype 1.
