News from Liver Meetings

Updates from EASL 2013

The 2013 International Liver Congress, hosted by the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), was held in Amsterdam (April 24-28) and brought together over 9,000 experts from around the world. Each year, the latest treatment and trial news is revealed at the Congress, and below you can find links to the main news, videos and press releases from the conference.

1. Experimental Hepatitis C Therapies

1.1 Hepatitis C drug highlights from the ILC

1.2 Direct-acting antivirals were shown to have a positive effect on response rates to pegylated interferon and ribavirin 

1.3 When added to pegylated interferon + ribavirin, the next generation HCV protease inhibitor vaniprevir increases sustained response rates for previously treated genotype 1 chronic hepatitis C patients with liver cirrhosis.

1.4 Daclatasvir + Asunaprevir + BMS-791352 looks promising as interferon-free combo 

1.5 Adding Sofosbuvir to Interferon/Ribavirin courses cures 90% people with hard to treat genotypes

1.6 Interferon free Daclatasvir + Sofosbuvir regimen cured all previously treated hep C patients who had not responded to interferon based triple therapy using boceprevir or telaprevir

2. Side Effects and Complications

2.1 Patients taking first generation HCV protease inhibitors have high risk of anemia

2.2 Cirrhotics at high risk of serious adverse events when on triple drug HCV therapy

3. Hepatitis B Treatment

3.1 Long-term Tenofovir reduces liver cancer risk in chronic hepatitis B patients

3.2 Combo of 2 HIV drugs can help suppress hepatitis B virus in 75% those with 'immune-tolerant' infection

3.3 Novel therapeutic approaches to cure chronic HBV infection

4. Videos

4.1 Videos and interviews from the ILC

For further information, please visit any of the following websites:

http://virtualpressoffice.easl.eu/

http://www.natap.org/pageone.htm

http://www.hivandhepatitis.com/

http://www.hepmag.com/conference/easl2013.shtml