| FDA
Approves Dose Adjustments of PegIntron and Rebetol for Certain Patients with Chronic
Hepatitis C  The
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last week announced approval of a new
dosing regimens for certain patients taking pegylated
interferon alfa-2b (PegIntron) plus ribavirin (Rebetol brand) for the treatment
of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection.
The
package insert now specifies revised reduced doses of pegylated interferon and
ribavirin to manage side effects such as blood cell deficiencies. These changes
reflect findings from the IDEAL
study, which indicated that lower doses of pegylated interferon could still
be effective, but an adequate dose of ribavirin was needed to prevent relapse. Below
is the FDA's announcement of the label change. FDA
Hepatitis Update -- Dose adjustments of PegIntron and
Rebetol for certain
patients with chronic hepatitis C On
May 8, 2009, FDA approved updates to the package insert for PegIntron (peginterferon
alfa-2b), a polyethylene glycol-conjugated formulation of interferon alfa-2b,
currently approved for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C (HCV) in patients
3 years of age and older with compensated liver disease, to reflect the results
of the IDEAL study, P03471, which includes adding a two-step dose reduction scheme
for PegIntron and increasing the dose of Rebetol to 1200 mg/day for patients who
weigh between 81 and 85 kilograms.
The package insert for PegIntron has
been revised to provide changes in the DOSAGE AND ADMINISTRATION section regarding
the new two-step dose reduction for PegIntron in the event of poor tolerability
or toxicity. Dose reduction recommendations include decreasing from PegInton 1.5
mcg/kg/week to 1.0 mcg/kg/week, then to 0.5 mcg/kg/week if a second dose reduction
is needed. In addition, dose recommendations for the accompanying dose of Rebetol
in patients > 80 to 85 kg have been revised to 1200 mg daily rather than 1000
mg daily. Study P03471 is described in the CLINICAL STUDIES section of the label.
The IDEAL study compared PegIntron 1.5 mcg/kg/week and PegIntron 1.0 mcg/kg/week
both in combination with Rebetol and Pegasys
[pegylated interferon alfa-2a] 180 mcg/week in combination with Copegus [ribavirin]
in 3070 treatment-naive subjects with genotype 1 HCV infection. Overall, sustained
viral response (SVR) rates were similar in all three treatment arms, however,
the PegIntron 1.5 mcg dose appeared to provide numerically higher sustained viral
response (SVR) rates than the PegIntron 1.0 mcg dose in many hard-to-treat subgroups
including African Americans, patients > 40 years of age, and patients with
high viral load.
The two-step approach to dose reduction appears to provide
optimal efficacy in the greatest number of patients while preserving demonstrated
efficacy of PegIntron 1.0 mcg/kg in those patients who require dose reduction
because of intolerance or toxicity. A second dose reduction was required in a
relatively small proportion of study subjects (2%-7% across the arms).
The
revised label will be available soon on the FDA web site at Drugs@FDA.
Complete
prescribing for PegIntron is available online at http://www.pegintron.com/peg. |
5/15/09 Source
R
Klein and K Struble (Food and Drug Administration). FDA Hepatitis Update -- Dose
adjustments of PegIntron and Rebetol for certain patients with chronic hepatitis
C. May 12, 2009.
|
FDA-approved
Combination Therapies for Chronic HCV Infection
