Administration of low-dose epoetin-alpha facilitates adherence to ribavirin in triple therapy with pegylated interferon-alpha-2b and telaprevir.

Aim: Anemia frequently develops in patients given pegylated interferon, ribavirin (RBV), telaprevir (TVR) triple therapy and restricts treatment by forcing reduction or discontinuation of RBV administration. We investigated whether erythropoietin (EPO) could alleviate RBV-induced anemia to help maintain the RBV dose during the first 12 weeks, the triple therapy phase.

Methods: Twenty-two patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 1 were enrolled.