Michael W. Fried, MD<\/a>, director of the UNC Liver Center, is a co-principal investigator.<\/p>\nFried directs the data coordinating center for the study, which will collect and analyze safety and effectiveness data from all 46 sites. Approximately $3 million from the PCORI grant will fund UNC\u2019s role in the study, Fried said. Other UNC personnel will play key roles in the study including Monika Vainorius, MD, associate director of the data coordinating center; Paul Stewart, PhD, from the Department of Biostatistics in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health; and Donna M. Evon, PhD and Jama M. Darling, MD, of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology.<\/p>\n
The initial patient has been enrolled and is one of 3,750 people who will be randomly assigned one of the medications as part of the five-year trial.<\/p>\n
In addition to comparing the effectiveness of the three oral medications, researchers will learn more about how the treatments perform when used by a diverse group of patients that includes minorities and people with other medical conditions. PCORI decided to fund research about the efficacy of hepatitis C medications because they were only tested previously in carefully selected patient populations and never against each other. That leaves physicians and patients with no comparative evidence about the drugs\u2019 effectiveness.<\/p>\n
Pragmatic clinical studies test a treatment\u2019s effectiveness in \u201creal-life\u201d situations, such as typical academic and community-based outpatient clinics, and also can include a wider range of study participants, making their findings more generally applicable.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost clinical trials are done in a very selective group of otherwise healthy individuals. We know the real world is quite different. It involves a diverse group of patients \u2014 people who may be older, have a lot more health disparities and get their health care delivered in many different ways,\u201d said Fried.<\/p>\n
The study is comparing AbbVie\u2019s Viekira Pak, Gilead Sciences\u2019 Harvoni and Merck & Co.\u2019s Zepatier, which was approved earlier this year by federal regulators. AbbVie and Merck are providing free medications and support worth hundreds of millions of dollars for the trial. Such a large, ambitious and expensive clinical trial couldn\u2019t happen without a unique partnership involving the nonprofit PCORI, the pharmaceutical industry, patient stakeholders, and academia, Nelson said.<\/p>\n
One of Fried\u2019s patients, Summer Wadsworth-Delciotto of Pittsboro, N.C., co-chairs a group of HCV patient consultants working on the research team. She said that participating in previous clinical trials of hepatitis C treatments was a life-changing experience for her. Not only was she cured, the clinical trials were a way to help others.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe now have highly effective, relatively painless treatment options for hepatitis C. As patients, we have the opportunity to share our treatment experiences with other patients as well as the medical community. [For others], participating in this new study is a way to lend a voice to the direction of medical treatment,\u201d said Wadsworth-Delciotto.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n
Dr. Michael Fried, director of the UNC Liver Center, is a co-principal investigator of the PRIORITIZE Study.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3410,"featured_media":4030,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97,2],"tags":[69],"class_list":["post-4029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gastroenterology","category-news","tag-69","odd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
UNC a lead site in clinical trial of three hepatitis C medications | Department of Medicine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UNC a lead site in clinical trial of three hepatitis C medications | Department of Medicine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dr. Michael Fried, director of the UNC Liver Center, is a co-principal investigator of the PRIORITIZE Study.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Department of Medicine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UNCDeptMedicine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-06-30T22:01:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-06-06T20:59:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2018\/12\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications-image2.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"156\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"208\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jennifer Layton\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@uncdeptmedicine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@uncdeptmedicine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jennifer Layton\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jennifer Layton\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/#\/schema\/person\/241d80fbbf78df2b0ecba11e35bd7da9\"},\"headline\":\"UNC a lead site in clinical trial of three hepatitis C medications\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-06-30T22:01:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-06-06T20:59:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications\/\"},\"wordCount\":605,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2018\/12\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications-image2.jpeg\",\"keywords\":[\"2016\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Gastroenterology and Hepatology\",\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications\/\",\"name\":\"UNC a lead site in clinical trial of three hepatitis C medications | Department of Medicine\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2018\/12\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications-image2.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-06-30T22:01:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-06-06T20:59:46+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/#\/schema\/person\/241d80fbbf78df2b0ecba11e35bd7da9\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2018\/12\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications-image2.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2018\/12\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications-image2.jpeg\",\"width\":156,\"height\":208,\"caption\":\"Dr. Michael Fried\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"UNC a lead site in clinical trial of three hepatitis C medications\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/\",\"name\":\"Department of Medicine\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/#\/schema\/person\/241d80fbbf78df2b0ecba11e35bd7da9\",\"name\":\"Jennifer Layton\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0e6b81275ea259c7b3de0f143bffca3ec28f4bd5f04b91799a61d91986ff6ee6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0e6b81275ea259c7b3de0f143bffca3ec28f4bd5f04b91799a61d91986ff6ee6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jennifer Layton\"},\"description\":\"Medicine-Gastroenterology\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/author\/jalayton\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"UNC a lead site in clinical trial of three hepatitis C medications | Department of Medicine","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"UNC a lead site in clinical trial of three hepatitis C medications | Department of Medicine","og_description":"Dr. Michael Fried, director of the UNC Liver Center, is a co-principal investigator of the PRIORITIZE Study.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications\/","og_site_name":"Department of Medicine","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UNCDeptMedicine","article_published_time":"2016-06-30T22:01:38+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-06-06T20:59:46+00:00","og_image":[{"width":156,"height":208,"url":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2018\/12\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications-image2.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jennifer Layton","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@uncdeptmedicine","twitter_site":"@uncdeptmedicine","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jennifer Layton","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications\/"},"author":{"name":"Jennifer Layton","@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/#\/schema\/person\/241d80fbbf78df2b0ecba11e35bd7da9"},"headline":"UNC a lead site in clinical trial of three hepatitis C medications","datePublished":"2016-06-30T22:01:38+00:00","dateModified":"2023-06-06T20:59:46+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications\/"},"wordCount":605,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2018\/12\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications-image2.jpeg","keywords":["2016"],"articleSection":["Gastroenterology and Hepatology","News"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications\/","url":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications\/","name":"UNC a lead site in clinical trial of three hepatitis C medications | Department of Medicine","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2018\/12\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications-image2.jpeg","datePublished":"2016-06-30T22:01:38+00:00","dateModified":"2023-06-06T20:59:46+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/#\/schema\/person\/241d80fbbf78df2b0ecba11e35bd7da9"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2018\/12\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications-image2.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2018\/12\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications-image2.jpeg","width":156,"height":208,"caption":"Dr. Michael Fried"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"UNC a lead site in clinical trial of three hepatitis C medications"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/","name":"Department of Medicine","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/#\/schema\/person\/241d80fbbf78df2b0ecba11e35bd7da9","name":"Jennifer Layton","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0e6b81275ea259c7b3de0f143bffca3ec28f4bd5f04b91799a61d91986ff6ee6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0e6b81275ea259c7b3de0f143bffca3ec28f4bd5f04b91799a61d91986ff6ee6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jennifer Layton"},"description":"Medicine-Gastroenterology","url":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/author\/jalayton\/"}]}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2018\/12\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications-image2.jpeg","featured_image_medium":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2018\/12\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications-image2.jpeg","featured_image_medium_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2018\/12\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications-image2.jpeg","featured_image_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2018\/12\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications-image2.jpeg","featured_image_thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2018\/12\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications-image2-150x150.jpeg","featured_image_alt":"Dr. Michael Fried","category_details":[{"name":"Gastroenterology and Hepatology","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/category\/gastroenterology\/"},{"name":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/category\/news\/"}],"tag_details":[{"name":"2016","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/tag\/2016\/"}],"_links_to":[],"_links_to_target":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3410"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"image2\"](\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2018\/12\/unc-a-lead-site-in-clinical-trial-of-three-hepatitis-c-medications-image2.jpeg\")