Conditions: Hepatitis C, Chronic
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 737
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
The primary purpose of this study is to compare the efficacy of two boceprevir (BOC)-containing therapeutic regimens in the treatment of naïve participants with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 1 who have the IL28B CC allele.

The regimens differ in the treatment for participants who achieve undetectable HCV ribonucleic acid (RNA) at the end of the peginterferon alfa-2a (peg-IFN) plus ribavirin (RBV) 4 week lead-in. Participants receive either peg-IFN + RBV (Arm 1) or BOC + peg-IFN + RBV (Arm 2). The hypothesis is that Arm 2 is noninferior to Arm 1 in the proportion of participants with undetectable HCV RNA at Follow-Up (FU) Week 24.

Detailed description:

Arms:
arm 1: Participants received an initial 4 week lead-in of peg-IFN + RBV. Following HCV RNA analysis at Week 4, participants with undetectable HCV RNA received open label peg-IFN + RBV for an additional 18 weeks (total of 24 weeks of peg-IFN/RBV therapy) \[Arm 1a\]. Participants with detectable HCV RNA at Week 4 had BOC added to the peg-IFN + RBV regimen at Week 6 and then followed the Response Guided Therapy (RGT) regimen for BOC + peg-IFN + RBV \[Arm 1b\]. arm 2: Participants received an initial 4-week lead-in of peg-IFN + RBV. Following HCV RNA analysis at Week 4, all participants had BOC added to the peg-IFN + RBV regimen at Week 6 regardless of HCV RNA levels. Participants who had undetectable HCV RNA at Week 4 continued on the BOC + peg-IFN + RBV regimen for an additional 20 weeks (total of 24 weeks of BOC + peg-IFN + RBV therapy) \[Arm 2a\]. Participants with detectable HCV RNA at Week 4 followed the RGT regimen for BOC + peg-IFN + RBV \[Arm 2b\].

Interventions: intervention 1: peg-Interferon alfa-2a intervention 2: Ribavirin intervention 3: Boceprevir
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: peg-IFN (180 ug) was taken once weekly via subcutaneous injection. intervention 2: RBV 200 mg tablets taken by mouth at a total daily dose of 1,000 mg (body weight \<75 kilograms \[kg\]) or 1,200 mg (body weight ≥75 kg) with total daily dose divided into 2 dosings. intervention 3: Four 200 mg BOC capsules taken three times a day by mouth for a total daily dose of 2,400 mg.

Protocol document: