Individuals taking the newest hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatments are often at risk of clinically significant drug-drug interactions (DDIs) with other medications they are taking, Reuters Health reports. Publishing their findings in Clinical Infectious Diseases, researchers studied 146 people with hep C who were recruited after the 2014 approval of Sovaldi (sofosbuvir).

Participants were taking a median of two other medications; 20 percent were not taking any other drugs. The most common medications were Protonix (pantoprazole) (18.8 percent), Aldactone (spironolactone) (16.5 percent), Synthroid (levothyroxine) (16.5 percent) and Microzide (hydrochlorothiazide) (10 percent).

On the low end, 9.6 percent of those taking Sovaldi and ribavirin for hep C treatment were at risk of a DDI that would require close monitoring or a dose adjustment. And on the high end, 66.3 percent of those taking Viekira Pak (ombitasvir/paritaprevir/ritonavir; dasabuvir) or Technivie (ombitasvir/paritaprevir/ritonavir) were at risk of a DDI.  The respective DDI risk for people taking Sovaldi and Olysio (simeprevir), Sovaldi and Daklinza (daclatasvir), or Harvoni (ledipasvir/sofosbuvir) was 31.4 percent, 36.8 percent and 40.2 percent.

To read the Reuters article, click here (free registration with the site is required).

To read the study abstract, click here.