"Two highly anticipated hepatitis C https drugs are poised to usher in a new era in the treatment of the viral disease as early as this summer experts say. The Merck drug boceprevir https and Vertex Pharmaceuticals similar drug telaprevir https are expected to win FDA approval within months following phase III trials showing that both drugs boosted cure rates to around  when used with standard therapy. The drugs will be used in patients with HCV genotype   the hardest to treat form of the viral infection https Adding one of the drugs to the current twodrug regimen of peginterferon and ribavirin https will make the treatment of hepatitis C https more complex but it will also cure a lot more people hepatitis C https specialist Donald M. Jensen MD of the University of Chicago Medical Center tells WebMD. Tripledrug therapy represents a major advance in the treatment of hepatitis C for patients he says. Results from two phase III boceprevir trials are published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Combining Drug Treatments In one trial  of previously untreated patients treated with the threedrug regimen of boceprevir peginterferon and ribavirin cleared the virus for good compared to  of patients treated with peginterferon and ribavirin alone. Patients who show no evidence of hepatitis https C virus HCV infection in the blood https for six months are considered cured because the likelihood that the virus will reappear is very small. This is known medically as sustained viral clearance. In another study just over half of patients who did not respond to the initial twodrug treatment achieved sustained viral clearance when boceprevir was added to a second week course of treatment. Only  of patients treated for a second time with standard therapy cleared the virus for good. Responses to the tripledrug therapy were even better in patients who initially responded to standard treatment but then relapsed. Seventyfive percent of these patients treated for  weeks achieved sustained viral clearances compared to  of patients who got a second round of peginterferon and ribavirin. The outcomes were similar to those seen in phase III trials of telaprevir. Triple therapy is coming soon veteran HCV researcher Bruce R. Bacon MD of St. Louis University School of Medicine tells WebMD. The only question is will it be tripledrug therapy with boceprevir or triple drug therapy with telaprevir How the Drug Combo Works About  million Americans are infected with HCV and the CDC says more than  people in the U.S. die each year of liver https disease and liver cancer https caused by the virus. It is also the leading cause of liver https transplants. Most people show no symptoms of infection with hepatitis https C for years or even decades. Because of this few people even know they are infected until they develop liver https disease or have significant liver scarring known as cirrhosis https The two new drugs directly attack and suppress the virus by inhibiting the HCV protease enzyme in a similar way that other protease inhibitors inhibit the HIV https virus. Because viruses quickly develop resistance to these drugs when given alone they typically are not used alone. That is why the threedrug cocktail will be needed even though patients often find the flu https symptoms and other side effects associated with peginterferon difficult to tolerate. The two new drugs have proven to have a common side effect of their own anemia https In the newly published boceprevir studies more than  of patients required the costly drug erythropoietin to boost red blood https cell production. This is a very expensive drug and I would imagine some insurance https companies would not pay for it Hensen says. He says it remains to be seen if patients will stay on the threedrug regimen if they dont have access to erythropoietin. Experimental Drugs on the Horizon The Holy Grail of HCV treatment is oral medications https that clear the virus without major side effects. Hensen says early trials of several candidates appear promising and treatment without peginterferon may be a reality within two or three years. Bacon says the time frame may be closer to five or even  years. An FDA advisory committee is scheduled to meet April  to consider recommending approval of boceprevir. The panel will consider Vertexs application for telaprevir the next day. Merck spokesman Robert Consalvo says the company hopes to have boceprevir on the market by this summer. We are working actively to prepare for the launch of this drug and will do so very quickly once it is approved by FDA he tells WebMD."