Sofosbuvir and ledipasvir are associated with high sustained virologic response and improvement of health‐related quality of life in East Asian patients with hepatitis C virus infection

Summary Although HCV infection is highly prevalent in East Asia, these patients have been underrepresented in HRQL studies. Here, we assess HRQL in East Asian HCV patients treated with different anti‐HCV regimens. Patients completed Short Form‐36 (SF‐36) before, during and after treatment. A total of 989 HCV patients were enrolled in two phase 3 clinical trials [China: 60.2%, South Korea: 22.4%, Taiwan: 17.4%; genotype 1: 55.3%, treatment‐naïve: 57.5%; cirrhosis: 14.0%]. Patients received pegylated interferon, sofosbuvir and ribavirin (Peg‐IFN + SOF + RBV; n = 130, genotypes 1, 6) or SOF + RBV (n = 475, all genotypes) or SOF and ledipasvir (LDV/SOF; n = 384, genotype 1). The SVR‐12 rates were 94.6%, 96.2% and 99.2%, respectively (P = 0.005). During treatment, Peg‐IFN + SOF + RBV‐treated group experienced significant declines in most HRQL scores (by the end of treatment, mean decline up to −12.0 points, all P