Barriers to Treatment in Patients With c

Chronic Hepatitis C Treatment
Image: trektx.com

Robert Hindes, MD, co-founded Trek Therapeutics in 2014 and serves as the pharmaceutical company’s chief medical officer. At Trek, Robert Hindes, MD, has focused his efforts on developing affordable therapies for patients with chronic hepatitis C.

For many people living with hepatitis C (HCV), dealing with the disease itself is only part of the struggle. Treatments exist for most genotypes of HCV, but these therapies are so expensive and so hard to access that many patients cannot obtain the medical care they need.

Historically, HCV therapies that included interferon required long durations of treatment, brought debilitating side effects, and cured fewer than half the patients who received drug therapy. Many patients avoided treatment because of the side effects and relatively low cure rate of the drug combinations available. Now that safer and more effective treatments are available, many patients cannot afford or have no access to the newer HCV drugs. Pharmaceutical companies and patient advocate groups have recently begun to work together to find a solution for this problem. However, it is likely that access to affordable and effective drug therapies will continue to be unavailable to a large number of patients for at least the next several years, and it is hoped that the drugs being developed by Trek will help to address this unmet medical need.

Faldaprevir – An Effective Second-Wave Protease Inhibitor

 

Trek Therapeutics
Image: trektx.com

Robert Hindes, MD, co-founded Trek Therapeutics, which is organized as a public benefit corporation that seeks ways of developing innovative yet affordable and accessible antiviral medications. As chief medical officer, Robert Hindes, MD, is engaged with his team in Phase 2a studies of TD-6450 plus faldaprevir.

Faldaprevir, a second generation protease inhibitor, was initially developed for use with ribavirin and pegylated interferon, and it is currently used in new regimens that are interferon-free. In phase 2b and 3 studies in patients with previously untreated genotype 1b hepatitis C virus (HCV), faldaprevir combined with pegylated interferon and ribavirin resulted in SVR rate of 82%.

A 2015 paper published in Liver International evaluated the Phase 2b SOUND-C2 interferon-free study involving a combination of faldaprevir, ribavirin, and deleobuvir. The combination resulted in overall SVR rate of 92%, and was well-tolerated among patients with HCV genotype-1a and 1b. Along with simeprevir, faldaprevir is considered one of the most effective second generation protease inhibitors.

Future Injection-Free Hepatitis Therapies

Robert Hindes, MD, is the former vice president of clinical development for Pharmasset, located in Princeton, New Jersey. As a pharmaceutical consultant, Robert Hindes, MD, currently works on the development of treatments for influenza and hepatitis C.

Recently, a study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that two oral treatments in combination were effective in treating hepatitis C. Daclatasvir and sofosbuvir in combination achieved high SVR rates even in patients who previously failed other HCV treatments. The new findings suggest that nearly all individuals with chronic HCV infection can be treated, with a high likelihood of cure. In the US, only about 5 percent of the 3.2 million infected Americans have been cured.

Approved by the FDA on December 6, 2013, sofosbuvir is used with existing peginterferon and ribavirin for genotype 1 of the disease. Daclatasvir is not yet approved by the FDA but an application for approval has been submitted. Developers of the medications believe that Interferon will no longer be needed for effective treatment of HCV infection.

Hepatitis C in Latin American Populations

A researcher on treatments for influenza and hepatitis, Robert Hindes, MD, is a consultant for a number of pharmaceutical companies in New England. Some of Dr. Robert Hindes’ most notable activities include research on entecavir, a treatment for hepatitis B, and sofosbuvir, an FDA-approved treatment for hepatitis C.

In Latin American countries, hepatitis C is at the forefront of political policy and medical research. With countrywide spending on the disease up from $14 million in 2002 to $92 million in 2010, Brazil is a prime example of this emerging trend. This is in combination with a lack of diagnoses in Latin American countries such as Mexico, where only an estimated 4 percent of hepatitis C cases have been diagnosed.

Additionally, a new study conducted at Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University showed that within the United States Latino population, certain demographics are more prone to the virus. The study showed a 12-percent rate of infection among individuals of Puerto Rican descent compared to a 2-percent infection rate in those of Mexican descent, a 1.5-percent rate among Dominicans, and 1-percent rate among Central Americans.