Harvoni

Maker:
Gilead

What it does:
Treats chronic hepatitis C

Traditional dosage:
One tablet daily, containing 90 mg ledipasvir and 400 mg sofosbuvir. Treatment duration 8, 12, or 24 weeks. Doesn’t need to be taken with ribavarin (except for those with decompensated cirrhosis or recipients of liver transplant) or interferon. (Harvoni combines a NS5A inhibitor and a nucleotide NS5B polymerase inhibitor.)

Drug interactions, precautions, & recommendations:
Do not use with St. John’s Wort, Cordarone, Crestor, Mycobutin, Rifadin, Priftin, or Olysio; the anticonvulsant drugs Tegretol, Dilantin, Luminol or Trileptal; or the HIV drugs Aptivus, Norvir, Atripla, or Stribild. For HIV regimens that contain tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, such as Viread and Truvada, monitor for tenofovir-associated adverse events. No clinically significant interactions with tenofovir alafenamide. Leave at least four hours between Harvoni and antacid consumption. Use with caution if pregnant or breastfeeding. Do not take with other sofosbuvir products. If taken with ribavirin (Copegus, Rebetol), all ribavirin warnings and contraindications apply.

The Federal Drug Administration issued the following label warning to be added to all hepatitis C (HCV) direct-acting antivirals (DAAs): Risk of hepatitis B virus (HBV) reactivation in patients connected with HCV and HBV has been reported, in some cases resulting in fulminant hepatitis, hepatic failure, and death.

Side effects:
Most serious: serious symptomatic bradycardia when coadministered with cordarone; hepatitis B virus reactivation; skin rashes, sometimes with swelling and blisters occurring
Other: fatigue, headache