AbbVie, a global biopharmaceutical company, has announced that the European Commission has granted marketing authorization for Maviret (glecaprevir/pibrentasvir), a once-daily, ribavirin-free treatment for adults with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection across all major genotypes (GT1-6). Maviret is a new 8-week, pan-genotypic treatment for patients without cirrhosis and who are new to treatment, who comprise the majority of the 71 million people living with HCV globally.

"Maviret represents an innovation in HCV care as an 8-week, pan-genotypic option that combines two distinct antiviral agents and has high efficacy even against most genotypes commonly associated with resistance to treatment," said Michael Severino, M.D., executive vice president, research and development and chief scientific officer, AbbVie. "This new treatment advancement has the potential to meet the diverse needs of patients in as short as 8 weeks across Europe."

Maviret is also indicated for patients with specific treatment challenges, including those with compensated cirrhosis across all major genotypes, and those who previously had limited treatment options, such as patients with severe chronic kidney disease (CKD) or those with genotype 3 (GT3) chronic HCV infection. Maviret is a pan-genotypic treatment approved for use in patients across all stages of CKD.

The approval of Maviret is supported by data from eight registrational studies in AbbVie's clinical development program, which evaluated more than 2,300 patients in 27 countries across all major HCV genotypes (GT1-6) and special populations.

"Maviret is an 8-week, pan-genotypic treatment for non-cirrhotic patients new to treatment with chronic hepatitis C that met all primary efficacy endpoints in its extensive HCV clinical trial program, achieving high cure rates," said Stefan Zeuzem, M.D., chief of the department of medicine at the J.W. Goethe University Hospital in Frankfurt, Germany. "Maviret offers a new therapy for the majority of HCV patients and removes many complexities of pre-treatment patient evaluation."

Authorization is supported by 97.5 percent (n=779/799)† cure rate with just 8 weeks of treatment in GT1-6 patients without cirrhosis and who were new to treatment. This high cure rate was achieved in patients with varied patient and viral characteristics and including those with CKD. For compensated cirrhotic patients, a 98 percent (n=201/205) cure rate was achieved with 12 weeks of treatment. For GT3 treatment-experienced patients with or without compensated cirrhosis, a 96 percent (n=66/69) cure rate was achieved with 16 weeks of treatment. In registrational studies for Maviret, less than 0.1 percent of patients discontinued treatment due to adverse reactions. The most commonly reported adverse reactions (incidence greater than or equal to 10 percent) were headache and fatigue.

Maviret combines two new, potent direct-acting antivirals that target and inhibit proteins essential for the replication of the hepatitis C virus. The presence of most genotypes or baseline mutations that are commonly associated with resistance have been shown to have minimal impact on efficacy of Maviret.

Approval of Maviret follows a review under accelerated assessment by the European Medicines Agency, which is granted to new medicines of major public health interest. Maviret is now licensed for use in all 28 member states of the European Union, as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. AbbVie's investigational, pan-genotypic treatment has also been granted accelerated review designations by other regulatory authorities including the US Food and Drug Administration and Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and is not yet approved in those countries.

Patients without cirrhosis and new to treatment [either treatment-naive or not cured with previous IFN-based treatments ([peg]IFN +/- RBV or SOF/RBV +/- pegIFN)].

Patients who achieve a sustained virologic response at 12 weeks post treatment (SVR12) are considered cured of hepatitis C.

Data were pooled from 8-week arms of the ENDURANCE-1 and 3, and SURVEYOR-2 studies.Data were pooled from 12-week GT3 treatment-naive, compensated cirrhotic arm of the SURVEYOR-2 and EXPEDITION-1 studies. Based on EC50 values of glecaprevir and pibrentasvir against full-length or chimeric replicons encoding NS3 or NS5A from laboratory strains and chimeric replicons from clinical isolates.