Canada approves Pendopharm’s all-oral ribavirin treatment Ibavyr for hepatitis C

Quebec-based Pendopharm, a division of privately-held Canadian drugmaker Pharmascience, says the regulator Health Canada has approved its Ibavyr (ribavirin tablets), the first stand-alone oral ribavirin for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections in Canada.

Approved to be used in combination with other agents, Ibavyr will enable some patients to receive an all-oral therapy (without interferon injections), which represents a novel treatment approach in Canada.

“The approval of Ibavyr transforms the treatment of HCV as some patients will now be able to receive treatment regimens without the use of interferon, thus eliminating the potential side effects associated with interferon that often lead patients not to start, or to complete, treatment,” said Alnoor Ramji, Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, University Of British Columbia.