Meta-Analysis
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Apr 18, 2015; 7(5): 806-813
Published online Apr 18, 2015. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v7.i5.806
Impact of all oral anti-hepatitis C virus therapy: A meta-analysis
Siddharth Bansal, Ashwani K Singal, Brendan M McGuire, Bhupinder S Anand
Siddharth Bansal, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Alabama Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294, United States
Ashwani K Singal, Brendan M McGuire, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of Alabama Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294, United States
Bhupinder S Anand, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center and Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, United States
Author contributions: All authors contributed to this manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest: No conflict of interest or disclosure by any author.
Data sharing: Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset available from the corresponding author at ashwanisingal.com@gmail.com. No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Ashwani K Singal, MD, MS, Assistant Professor, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of Alabama Birmingham, 1720 2nd Ave S, Birmingham, AL 35294, United States. ashwanisingal.com@gmail.com
Telephone: +1-205-9345623 Fax: +1-205-9759777
Received: December 2, 2014
Peer-review started: December 2, 2014
First decision: January 8, 2015
Revised: February 3, 2015
Accepted: March 5, 2015
Article in press: March 9, 2015
Published online: April 18, 2015
Processing time: 138 Days and 14.7 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Data are rapidly evolving on the efficacy and safety of newer oral direct acting antivirals (DAAs) for treating hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Second generation and emerging DAAs are promising agents in HCV treatment, with a very high level of safety and efficacy. An important drawback is their high cost. However, the present meta-analysis shows that the cost per sustained virologic response for non responders (but not for naive patients) was lower compared to peg interferon alfa2a + ribavirin. This finding together with the superior safety profile and better compliance makes these drugs highly attractive.