Pegylated Interferon Alfa-2a

An adverse event is any untoward medical occurrence in a patient administered a pharmaceutical product and which does not necessarily have to have a causal relationship with the treatment. An adverse event can therefore be any unfavorable and unintended sign (including an abnormal laboratory finding, for example), symptom, or disease temporally associated with the use of a pharmaceutical product, whether or not considered related to the pharmaceutical product. Preexisting conditions which worsen during a study are also considered as adverse events.

SVR was defined as success if the participant had HCV RNA levels \<15 IU/mL as measured by COBAS AmpliPrep/COBAS TaqMan® HCV test at the 24-week untreated follow-up visit (HCV-RNA levels obtained at least 18 weeks after last dose of either pegylated-Interferon alfa-2a or ribavirin were considered if the 24-week untreated follow-up visit data were missing). Percentage of participants with SVR for Groups A and B was reported in this analysis.

Samples were collected and analyzed for ALT. A normal ALT is a value within the normal range of the assay.

Samples were collected and analyzed for HDV RNA levels. Negative HDV RNA is defined as below the level of detection of the assay.

Combined response was defined as alanine aminotransferase (ALT) normalization plus lowering of hepatitis B virus (HBV) deoxyribo nucleic acid (DNA) levels to \<20,000 copies/mL (\<3,400 IU/mL) and was measured at the end of the 48-week follow-up period. Participants with missing 48 weeks follow-up measurements were considered as non-responders. However, if the scheduled 48-weeks post-treatment tests were performed earlier or later than 48 weeks post-treatment, but not earlier than 36 weeks post-treatment, the corresponding results were considered to determine response.

Participants who stopped pegylated interferon (PEG-IFN) treatment during the add-on phase due to serum HBsAg loss and HBsAg seroconversion were considered as responders.

To investigate possible action mechanisms, three different models were fitted to viruskinetic data and evaluated using related log-likelihood function values. These models were designed assuming individual effects with respect to infectiousness (model 1), virus production (model 2) or degradation of infected cells rate (model 3). The following viruskinetic parameters were fitted in each model: initial viral load, loss rate of infected cells (delta), effectivity of interferon with respect to a pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic model. A lower log likelihood function value indicates a lesser fit for the model.

An adverse event (AE) was any untoward medical occurrence in a participant who received study drug without regard to possibility of causal relationship to the study drug. An SAE was an AE resulting in any of the following outcomes or deemed significant for any other reason: death; Initial or prolonged inpatient hospitalization; Life-threatening experience (immediate risk of dying); Persistent or significant disability or incapacity; and congenital anomaly.