The Food and Drug Administration approved a combination of two powerful antiviral drugs today to treat liver-destroying hepatitis C, a therapy that promises to be almost 10 times better than standard treatment. Rebetron is a combination of interferon A injections, today's standard treatment, and a new oral version of the antiviral drug ribavirin.
Therapy takes six months.
But the FDA said patients must be closely watched for side effects. Because of those reactions, the FDA decided that Rebetron should be used only by patients who relapse after standard interferon treatment. Both women and men must use birth control while taking Rebetron and for six months afterwards, until the potent medicine fully clears their bodies, the FDA said. In pregnant women, Rebetron can cause serious birth defects and even fetal death, the agency warned. But the FDA also warned male Rebetron patients to practice birth control as well, in case the drug affects sperm.