Twelve weeks of Olysio (simeprevir) and Sovaldi (sofosbuvir) cures high rates of genotype 1 of hepatitis C virus (HCV) without the need for ribavirin, MedPage Today reports. Publishing their findings in The Lancet, researchers in the COSMOS trial gave Gilead Sciences’ nucleotide analog NS5B polymerase inhibitor Sovaldi and Janssen’s NS3/4A protease inhibitor Olysio to 167 participants for 12 or 24 weeks, with or without ribavirin.

Both Sovaldi and Olysio were approved at the end of 2013. The American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases recommends 12 weeks of the pair with ribavirin for treatment-naive people with genotype 1 of hep C who are not eligible to receive interferon. Currently, the combination must be prescribed off-label, although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve the combo by January 2015.

Participants in this trial either failed a previous treatment regimen or were taking therapy for the first time. All of them had advanced liver fibrosis.

Ninety-one percent of those who received ribavirin achieved a sustained virologic response 12 weeks after completing therapy (SVR12, considered a cure), compared with 95 percent of those who did not take ribavirin. Ninety-four percent of those who received 12 weeks of treatment were cured, compared with 91 percent of those receiving 24 weeks.

To read the MedPage Today story, click here.

To read the COSMOS abstract, click here.