New FDA Approval - Epclusa

Drug

sofosbuvir / velpatasvir [Epclusa]

Indication

Epclusa is used for treatment of chronic hepatitis C (HCV). It can be used in patients both with and without cirrhosis. If the patient does have cirrhosis (moderate to severe), Epclusa should be given with ribavirin.

Eplcusa can be given all by its lonesome self if there is no cirrhosis or if cirrhosis is in earlier stages.

Boceprevir and Telaprevir: We Hardly Knew Ye

When I was finishing up pharmacy school (2013), the landscape of Hep-C therapy was drastically changing. Two new drugs, boceprevir and telaprevir, were fresh on the market and were "game changers" according to any and everyone. In fact--I presented these new protease inhibitors (in all their majesty) during my residency interviews.

Now it's 2016 and they're both gone.

Clinical, Practice, tl;dr pharmacySamuel OhMay 18, 2016Hepatitis C, HCV, HepC, Boceprevir, Telaprevir, Protease Inhibitors

Hepatitis C Treatment 101

Hepatitis C has been in the news a lot recently. On one hand, the advances in research have some touting the disease on the verge of being "cured." On the other hand, the "Because We Can, That's Why" $1000 per pill regimens are coming under scrutiny from congress.

Many of us try to avoid Hepatitis C (HCV) because so much of the therapeutics are new and "foreign" to us. Also, the HCV treatment guidelines have changed at least twice in the time it's taken you to read this far. But HCV isn't going away. And you know it's going to be on the NAPLEX. So let's dig in, and see if we can't make some sense of this ever-evolving disease.