That is definitely not good.

Definition
By Mayo Clinic staff

Elevated liver enzymes may indicate inflammation or damage to cells in the liver. Inflamed or injured liver cells leak higher than normal amounts of certain chemicals, including liver enzymes, into the bloodstream, which can result in elevated liver enzymes on blood tests.

The specific elevated liver enzymes most commonly found are:

Alanine transaminase (ALT)
Aspartate transaminase (AST)

Elevated liver enzymes may be discovered during routine blood testing. In most cases, liver enzyme levels are only mildly and temporarily elevated. Most of the time, elevated liver enzymes don't signal a chronic, serious liver problem.

From the article:

"Incivek sales have been declining sharply as patients wait for new all oral treatment regimens that promise very high cure rates without the need for interferon and the miserable flu-like symptoms that come with it."


1) No big surprise on declining sales there.

2) Miserable flu-like symptoms. That capture your experience eveybody that took interferon? Lol What a joke. If only!!

The flu like symptoms was not biggie for me...the bigger issue is the depression, and the rheumatoid arthritis as it attacks the joints and ligaments.
And kind of funny to read articles from people who did never actually used it.Hear say writer..Being concerned only about the flu like symptoms, and leave the major , a lot more serious problems out. What about the Interferon effect on the brain cells?

Actually I think flu like symptoms is pretty accurate.
I have had the flu a few times and was so sick and miserable I could not get out of bed.
That is pretty much how I felt and still feel from time to time (three years later);
The flu usually lasts a few days to a week. Imagine feeling like that for a year or more.
People die from the flu!

Just glad that I am living an interfearon-free life.

I think that Gilead will survive the downturn in income from Incivek. Don't expect to see them on a street corner with a sign that says "Will work for drug money".

the only part of the Vertex trial that was stopped was the 400mg dose. The 100mg and 200mg trials continue

Well with my many, many sides, flu-like sx's weren't at all a problem for me. I was bracing for that but got so much more instead.

That's great that the other dosages continue. Probably just some overdosing. Happens all of the time with new meds. No worries. Best to not be first in line if you can wait some but somebody's gotta do it. ;-)

Yes the unsung heroes are the volunteers, whom for many different reasons, going in to trials with out knowing the outcome.And even with the best and closest monitoring people do dies, have trials early terminated after months of suffering and hope ,as a reminder how dangerous HCV research is. One thing i have never understand it all along.
Why is a 120 pound 5.1"woman takes the same 400mg pill as the 210 pound 6.2" guy....It never made sense to me , and after all this time it is still puzzling me! If anyone can explain it.....

I dont think of people who participated in trials as unsung heroes. We may have had different reasons for participating but all of us did it out of self-interest.

And I agree with you about the medical dosage issue. I am small and weigh less than the woman you described, yet I take the same dosage of meds as people two or three times my size.

Nice to have you posting here again, btw.

I agree with Kat about self interests

The first time I took treatment, just INF + Riba, before there was even pegylated INF it was a clinical trial. It would be nice to say I did it so that I could help advance science. But I did it to get rid of HCV

It didn't work for me, and then years later I did it with Peg Inf + Riba, and it didn't work, but triple with Vic did.

same here, Kat and Reminder. I weigh 108 pounds and have to work at it to keep it that "high" - yet, every single doctor will prescribe the same dose to me as they do a 160 man (or woman). Now I've learned to tell them BEFORE they write a script to cut it at least in half. I have horror stories from when I took the "normal" dosage of Effexor - omg. And my hypertension meds - yikes - one time my BP was about 75/50! That doc still doesn't pay attention - fine, I cut them in half and a "month's worth" of them lasts me two months. I have often thought about Riba - what the "normal" dosage of say, even 1,000 mg for supposed lightweights, would to to me. I think 600 is about the max I could go w/out needing transfusions for severe anemia - but as time goes on and I'm not tx'ing yet, I'm getting to where I don't want to do any tx with Riba in it (and Interferon has long been crossed off my list with a vengeance).

We always have to be our own advocates with meds - docs don't listen to us, as a rule - or think about what we weigh.

You do not see people with money on the firing lines. They show up only on harvest time, because they can afford the insurance. The majority of people who enrolls to a trial are not well off, so it is the only reasonable solution, the only way (hope) to kill the beast. If that is a self interest! Even as the drug companies offering free drugs (yes) the lab tests are costing money, so as the doctors visit. And honestly say it i don't even know how people who do physical work could even manage 24 or 48 week on some hardcore meds. All my respect to the one who was able to do that.

I had insurance, although with high co-pays and deductibles. I didn't chose my trial because it's all I could afford. I was afraid I couldn't handle tx mentally. I pursued my trial. I know of at least one very smart person who would have paid to be on my trial; I'm sure there are many others.

I was lucky. Sometimes I think out of everyone I least deserve to be so lucky. After all, I don't take very good care of my liver. I drink too much and hate myself for drinking so much and them drink more.

and on and on she goes...

My father died of alcohol induced hepatitis. I didn't know him as alcohol was more important for him.That is one reason i don't touch alcohol since 1990. I use to clean up a bottle wine in 8 minutes. I Napoleon Cognac disappeared in lesser than 45min.A beer? 2 min. Alternated Southern Comfort, Cognac, Vodka, Gin, Mad Dog...Port o Call, and the Long Islands at Chippendale's...yes i tried them all. And it all come to a halt 23 years ago.I decided i don't want to die like my father did. Given me the strength to stop in the middle of the biggest binge.
And of course i got the worst of the worst anyway...I got lucky with the treatment, and starting it all new...fresh.Mind and body!