An experimental concoction involving three drugs, daclatasvir, asunaprevir, and beclabuvir, has given remarkable results in handling the disease Hepatitis C.

Hepatitis C is an infectious disease that could eventually lead to hazardous conditions such as liver cancer or liver cirrhosis. The affliction is a primary cause for liver transplants.

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The drug combination mentioned above has reportedly cleaned the virus from the livers of 93% afflicted by the condition, according to the studies conducted from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. All patients involved already had the complication, cirrhosis. The research was published on the Journal of the American Medical Association in its May 5 edition. None of the three have been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration.

During the last 20 or so years, treatment of the infection,had  heavily depended on interferons which involve regular injections. Undesirable secondary effects arise from the possibly year-long treatment, mimicking symptoms of a severe flu. Additionally, people may be unable to take interferons due to anemia, low platelet count or other health issues.

The study remarked that those who had their disease in more advanced stages were likely to be unable to handle interferons and for those that could endure it, the treatment was "only moderately effective", as published by U.S. National Library of Medicine .

There have, however, been alternatives to interferons since 2013, such as Sovaldi (sofosbuvir) or Harvoni (lepdipasvir-sofosbuvir). These are effective, but are also substantially expensive.

The study mentioned dealt with 112 patients with hepatitis c related cirrhosis and was funded by Bristol-Myers Squibb.

The treatments ran from December 2013 to September 2014 and spanned almost 50 locations in the United States, Canada, France and Australia. The drug combination treated 93% of patients with cirrhosis but found that it was less effective on those who were treated unsuccessfully in the past. Most patients had minor side effects.

The study, however, lacked control groups for monitoring side effects and also lacked racial diversity due to 88% of the participants being white, published in one of the articles in MedicineNet.

Tagsliver transplant, Hepatitis C, nited States Food and Drug Administration