BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Patients with chronic hepatitis C who respond quickly to PEGASYS® (peginterferon alfa-2a) and COPEGUS® (ribavirin, USP) may have an excellent chance of achieving treatment success with a shortened course of therapy, according to interim results presented at the 57th Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD). Three-quarters of patients with the difficult-to-treat viral genotypes 1 and 4 who had a rapid viral response (RVR) – defined as undetectable levels of the virus after four weeks of therapy – achieved treatment success after 24 weeks of therapy. (Patients with these genotypes are typically treated for 48 weeks.)
