Conditions: Hepatitis C, Chronic
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 155
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
This 2 arm study will assess the efficacy and safety of PEGASYS plus COPEGUS, with or without concomitant pioglitazone, on hepatitis C virus titers in treatment-naive patients with genotype 1 chronic hepatitis C, and insulin resistance. Patients will be randomized to receive either a)PEGASYS 180 micrograms/week + Copegus 1000-1600 mg/day (according to body weight) for 48 weeks or b)16 weeks of pioglitazone (30 mg daily for 8 weeks, then 45 mg daily for 8 weeks), followed by PEGASYS 180 micrograms/week + Copegus 1000-1600 mg/day + pioglitazone 45 mg daily for 48 weeks. The anticipated time on study treatment is 1-2 years, and the target sample size is 100-500 individuals.

Detailed description:

Arms:
arm 1: Participants received pioglitazone in a 16 week run-in period (30 mg per day orally for 8 weeks followed by 45 mg per day orally for 8 weeks). Participants then received piogliatzone 45 mg daily orally plus 18 μg of Peginterferon Alfa-2a (PEG-INF alpha-2a) subcutaneous (sc) once a week plus ribavirin (1000 - 1600 mg/day orally as a split dose in the morning and the evening based on the participant's body weight) for 48 weeks in the anti-HCV treatment phase. Participants received 45 mg of pioglitazone per day orally in the 24 week follow-up period. arm 2: Participants received 18 μg of Peginterferon Alfa-2a (PEG-INF alpha-2a) subcutaneous (sc) once a week plus ribavirin (1000 - 1600 mg/day orally as a split dose in the morning and the evening based on the participant's body weight) for 48 weeks in the anti-HCV treatment phase followed by a treatment free 24 week follow-up period.

Interventions: intervention 1: peginterferon alfa-2a [Pegasys] intervention 2: ribavirin [Copegus] intervention 3: Pioglitazone
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: 180 micrograms subcutaneous weekly for 48 weeks intervention 2: 1000-1600 mg day orally for 48 weeks. intervention 3: 30 mg daily for 8 weeks increasing to 45 mg daily for 64 weeks.

Protocol document: