Real-world Australian data reflect very high sustained virologic response at 12 weeks with direct acting antiviral therapy for hepatitis C and suggests highly achievable even in those without an end-of-treatment response

There are limited real-world data on the efficacy of direct acting antiviral (DAA) therapy for hepatitis C (HCV) in Australia. In this study, the efficacy of DAA therapy for HCV was compared between cirrhotic and non-cirrhotic cohorts. Patients without end-of-treatment response (EoTR) were observed to ascertain likelihood of achieving sustained virological response at 12 weeks post-treatment (SVR12). A total of 334 patients with HCV was included. Overall SVR12 was 96.7% with minimal differences in SVR12 between the cirrhosis and non-cirrhosis groups (95.7 and 97.3%). There were 20 patients (5.99%) that failed to achieve an EoTR of which 80.0% (n = 16) went on to achieve SVR12. These results suggest DAA therapy is effective with high rates of SVR12 even in patients that do not achieve an EoTR.