AbbVie receives EU approval for new hepatitis C treatment

AbbVie has announced that its new all-oral, short-course, interferon-free treatment regimen has been approved by the European Commission.

Viekirax and Exviera, two tablet-based therapies, have been approved for use both with or without ribavirin for patients with genotype 1 chronic hepatitis C virus infections. Viekirax has also been individually ratified for the treatment of genotype 4 hepatitis C.

In phase III clinical trials, Viekirax and Exviera were shown to cure between 95 and 100 percent of patients, with less than two percent experiencing virologic failure. Additionally, more than 98 percent were able to successfully complete a full course of therapy.

These are the first products to be approved as a combination treatment of three direct-acting antivirals with distinct mechanisms of action and non-overlapping resistance profiles, allowing them to target hepatitis C at multiple steps in the viral lifecycle.

Richard Gonzalez, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of AbbVie, said: "The approval of AbbVie's hepatitis C treatment in the EU, following the recent approvals in the US and Canada, offers patients across Europe a new and effective treatment to cure this serious disease."

This comes after the company received US approval for Duopa, a new treatment for motor fluctuations among advanced Parkinson's disease patients, last week.