Trial of Simplified Treatment Monitoring for 8 Weeks Glecaprevir/Pibrentasvir in Chronic Hepatitis C Patients

The aim of this study is to determine if treatment monitoring schedule for chronic HCV patients treated with glecaprevir (300mg)/pibrentasvir (120mg) can be simplified. Data has shown that direct acting antiviral (DAA) regimen of glecaprevir (300mg)/pibrentasvir (120mg), a protease inhibitor and NS5A inhibitor respectively , provides key features for HCV treatment simplification. Eligible participants (naïve pre-cirrhosis chronic HCV patients) will be randomized (1:2) to the standard or simplified monitoring arm and will receive treatment for 8 weeks. One post treatment visit will be conducted 12 weeks after the final dose of study medication to evaluate the proportion of patients with undetectable HCV RNA at this timepoint (SVR12).

The capacity to scale-up interferon-free DAA therapy would be enhanced by simplified treatment monitoring strategies. The "next generation" DAA regimen of glecaprevir (300mg)/pibrentasvir (120mg), a protease inhibitor and NS5A inhibitor, provides key features for HCV treatment simplification, including on-treatment monitoring: 1) pangenotypic activity with extremely high efficacy (SVR\>95%); 2) no relationship between time to undetectable HCV RNA and SVR; 3) minimal drug-related toxicity; 4) ease of dosing (three pills once daily); and short duration (8 weeks in non-cirrhosis and 12 weeks in cirrhosis for treatment naïve patients). In phase II and III clinical trials in participants without cirrhosis, 8 weeks of glecaprevir (300mg)/pibrentasvir (120mg) has provided intention-to-treat SVR rates of 99.1%, 98%, 97%, and 93.1% in genotype 1, 2, 3, and 4-6 populations, respectively. Current standard on-treatment monitoring in clinical trials involves clinic-based visits every 4 weeks. In the DAA era where treatments are highly tolerable, effective and short duration, this intensive monitoring strategy may no longer be required. A simplified on-treatment monitoring strategy is hypothesised to be non-inferior to the standard clinical trial on treatment monitoring strategy. If successful, a simplified on-treatment monitoring strategy is likely to be highly attractive to patients, clinicians and health care payers. It has the potential to improve the rapid scale up of treatment providing population level benefits in the reduction of global hepatitis C disease burden. This study will be conducted as a Phase IIIb, randomised, controlled, multicentre, international trial. There will be a maximum screening period of 6 weeks prior to Baseline. Eligible patients will be randomised into one of two on-treatment monitoring strategies; standard clinical trial monitoring (4-weekly on-treatment visits) vs simplified monitoring (no on-treatment visits). Randomisation will be 1:2 (standard vs simplified) and all participants will receive treatment with glecaprevir (300mg)/pibrentasvir (120mg) for 8 weeks. All participants will attend the clinic for screening and baseline visit. Randomisation will occur at the baseline visit. The two on-treatment monitoring strategies will differ as follows: * Standard monitoring arm participants will have on-treatment clinic visits at weeks 4 and 8 (EoT). * Simplified monitoring arm participants will have no on-treatment clinic visits. Study nurse phone contact will also be made to participants in BOTH arms 1-2 days prior Week 4 and EoT (Week 8) visits to provide standardized reporting of adverse events, concomitant medication and adherence. One post treatment clinic visit will be conducted at SVR12 (week 20) for all participants.