Active clinical trials for "Hepatitis, Chronic"

Chronic hepatitis C is a liver disease related to a virus: hepatitis C virus (HCV). The type of HCV present in Egypt (genotype 4), has the reputation to respond poorly to Interferon treatment at the chronic stage. Pegylated Interferon is a new form of Interferon that stays in the body for longer time and allows the patient to take less injection per week. It has proved to be more effective than standard Interferon. The combination of two drugs, Interferon and Ribavirin, is considered to be the best treatment available for chronic hepatitis C.

This study is being conducted to compare the safety and effectiveness of switching treatment from lamivudine to telbivudine (LdT) against continued lamivudine treatment. Results from patients who were taking lamivudine and then switched to telbivudine will be compared with the results from patients who continued on lamivudine alone.

This study will examine the effectiveness of pegylated interferon, or peginterferon (a long-acting form of alpha interferon) plus ribavirin in treating hepatitis C (genotype 1) infection with and without kidney disease.

The purpose of this clinical research study is to assess the safety and effectiveness of switching to entecavir compared to continued lamivudine in patients with chronic hepatitis B.

Chronic hepatitis C is a disease of the liver caused by the hepatitis C virus. The disease can be serious and even fatal. Approximately 25% of patients with chronic hepatitis C will develop cirrhosis and some of these patients will develop cancer of the liver or liver failure. Presently the disease is treated with a combination of alpha interferon or peginterferon (antiviral and immune stimulating drugs) and ribavirin (an antiviral drug). Alpha interferon is given by injection three times a week whereas peginterferon is given by injection only once a week. Ribavirin is given as a tablet by mouth twice a day. The combination therapy is given for 6 to months. About half of the patients given these medications will receive a lasting benefit and many patients do not respond well to the combination therapy. This study will select up to 50 patients will chronic hepatitis C who have not responded to combination therapy or who could not stand the side effects associated with interferon or peginterferon therapy. These subjects will be evaluated and undergo liver biopsy to determine their present liver condition. If selected as subjects they will be started on single drug therapy with ribavirin. The drug will be given orally twice a day at a dose based on the patient's body weight. The patients will be followed on an out-patient basis. They will we asked to return for regular check-ups and blood tests every 2 to 8 weeks for the duration of the study. After 6 months, the medication will be stopped or adjusted based on the results of the subject's blood tests (liver enzymes). A response is considered if a decrease of 50% or more of the initial liver enzyme (alanine aminotransferase, ALT) is noted. A complete response will be considered if liver enzymes return to normal levels. Therapy will be discontinued after 6 months if patients do not respond. However, patients that respond to the single drug therapy will continue to receive the medication at a decreased dose. The patients will remain on an appropriate dose for up to 8 years with repeat liver biopsies at 2, 4 and 8 years to assess progress. This study will determine if long-term therapy with ribavirin is safe and effective.

Hepatitis C is a major cause of liver disease in the United States and leads to cirrhosis of the liver in approximately one-third of patients some of whom will ultimately suffer from liver failure or liver cancer. At present, the recommended therapy of hepatitis C is the combination of alpha interferon and ribavirin given for 6 to 12 months. Ribavirin is a antiviral drug that is given by mouth. Interferon is both an antiviral and an immune medication which must be given by injections (three times a week) and has many difficult side effects. The purpose of this study is to determine whether the combination of ribavirin and interferon improve the liver disease of hepatitis C and whether improvements can be maintained by continuing ribavirin therapy long-term. This study will take 100 to 120 patients suffering from hepatitis C and place them under combination drug therapy with alpha interferon and ribavirin. The course of drug therapy is scheduled to last 6 to 12 months. Patients will be selected after appropriate screening for hepatitis C virus and elevated liver enzymes are conducted and liver biopsy shows chronic hepatitis with some degree of injury and scarring. During the first 6 months of the study, subjects will be asked to return to the outpatient clinic for routine check-ups and blood tests every 2 to 4 weeks. Blood tests will include tests for hepatitis C virus. If the virus test becomes negative on treatment, the therapy will be considered successful and will be continued for a full 6 or 12 months (depending upon the strain of virus). If the virus test does not become negative during the first six months of treatment, subjects will be considered "non-responders" and will stop taking interferon but will continue on ribavirin alone or an identically appearing placebo tablet. These non-responsive subjects will continue this therapy for an additional 12 months. (A year-and-a-half total). Upon completion of the drug therapies, subjects will be requested to submit blood samples and undergo a liver biopsy to determine if the therapy was successful. Test results that reveal a loss of hepatitis C antibodies or normal levels of liver enzymes will be deemed successful. Patients that have successful laboratory test results will be considered for continuation of ribavirin therapy. Patients that received placebo for a year will be eligible to receive ribavirin long-term at the end of the study.

Renal impairment is common in patients with chronic hepatitis B infection. For those taking nucleotide analogues, renal toxicity of adefovir disoproxil (ADV) and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) is a significant concern in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients. Early observational clinical data suggested that telbivudine (LdT) might have renoprotective effects. In this prospective study, consecutive CHB patients on combined lamivudine (LAM)+ADV/TDF are switched to LdT+ADV/TDF at recruitment and are followed up for 24 months. Estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) is calculated with the Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD) equation. The effects of LdT on cell viability and expression of kidney injury or apoptotic biomarkers are investigated in cultured renal tubular epithelial cell line HK-2.

The Safety, Antiviral Activity, and pharmacokinetics of Morphothiadine Mesilate Capsules/Ritonavir Tablets in Patients with Chronic Hepatitis B

This is a Phase4, multicenter, open-label, randomized study to demonstrate that the Tenolid Tab switching group is non-inferior to the virologic suppression effect compared to the Viread Tab continuous administration group and evaluate the safety of Tenolid Tab. This clinical trial was conducted on patients who were taking Viread Tab as monotherapy for more than 48 weeks for chronic hepatitis B. At the time of screening(Visit 1), information on factors related to medical history and prognosis including Viread Tab administration were collected retrospectively from the subjects who voluntarily signed the informed consent form (ICF). Only subjects who are determined to be suitable for the study eligibility(inclusion/exclusion) criteria as a result of the screening evaluations are randomized in a 1:1 ratio to one of the two groups at the baseline. Subjects will receive investigational product start on the next day of randomization for 48 weeks. Subjects will visit to the study site on 12, 24, 36, 24 weeks after starting dosing investigational product and evaluated for effectiveness of virologic suppression and safety.

This is a phase IV, open label, historical controlled comparative study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Ricovir® in maintaining durability of viral response in CHB patients who have been treated with Viread® and have undetectable HBV DNA in serum by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay.