Treatment-naïve patients were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to 48 weeks of double-blind treatment with subcutaneous, once-weekly injections of 180 μg of peginterferon alfa-2a (40KD) plus either twice-daily oral ribavirin (600 to 1000mg/day) or placebo.~All patients who had received previous treatment with conventional interferon but had failed to respond (no suppression of HCV-RNA below detection limits of a sensitive assay) or had relapsed (reversion to HCV-RNA positive state after suppression) received the combination of peginterferon alfa-2a (40KD) plus ribavirin for 48 weeks at the dosages stated above.
This study evaluated the efficacy and safety of the combination of peginterferon alfa-2a plus ribavirin in treatment-naïve patients with HCV genotype 1b infection, compared with peginterferon alfa-2a monotherapy.~Additionally, the study evaluated the efficacy and safety of the combination of peginterferon alfa-2a plus ribavirin in patients with CHC who had failed to respond to previous conventional-interferon based therapy.