ClinicalTrials.gg
CompletedNCT03282474Updated Mar 8, 2019

HepNet Pilot Trial: Multicenter Trial for the Treatment of Chronic Hepatitis E With Sofosbuvir (SofE)

A Phase 2 interventional study of Sofosbuvir in Hepatitis E and Hepatitis Chronic Viral, sponsored by Hannover Medical School. Completed at 3 sites in Germany. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2019-03-08.

Sponsored by Hannover Medical School · Phase 2, Interventional, and Treatment

Phase
Phase 2
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
10
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

This is a single arm multicenter pilot study to provide preliminary evidence whether sofosbuvir (SOF) is efficacious and can be safely used in patients with chronic Hepatitis E virus infection.

02

Conditions studied

  • Hepatitis E
  • Hepatitis Chronic Viral

Browse trials for

Keywords

  • Hepatitis E
03

In context

Hepatitis E

37 studies on the registry are indexed under Hepatitis E; 9 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 10 is below the median of 330 across 26 interventional studies indexed under Hepatitis E.

Browse Hepatitis E studies →

Lead sponsor

Hannover Medical School is the lead sponsor of 202 studies on the registry; 25 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  1. Willing and able to provide written
  2. Male or female, age ≥ 18 years
  3. Confirmation of chronic HEV infection documented by: Positive HEV RNA at least 3 months before Screening, and positive for HEV RNA at the time of Screening
  4. Documented previous ribavirin therapy or documented for full dose (≥ 600mg qd) ribavirin monotherapy for at least 3 months
  5. (BMI) ≥ 18 kg/m2
  6. Screening without abnormalities
  7. Subjects must have the following laboratory parameters at screening:

    • ≥ 60,000/μL
    • ≤2.0 x unless subject has known hemophilia or is stable on an anticoagulant regimen affecting INR
    • ≤ 10%
    • (CLcr) ≥ 30 mL/min, as calculated by the Cockcroft-Gault equation (using actual body weight)
  8. Subject has not been treated with any drug or device within 42 days of the Screening visit
  9. A negative serum pregnancy test is required for female subjects (unless surgically sterile or women ≥ 54 years of age with cessation for 24 ≥ months of previously occurring menses).

    Complete abstinence from intercourse. Periodic abstinence (e.g., calendar, ovulation, symptothermal, post-ovulation methods) is not permitted.

    Or

    Consistent and correct use of 1 of the following methods of listed below, in addition to a male partner who correctly uses a condom, from the date of Screening until 30 days after last dose of study drug:

    • intrauterine device (IUD) with a failure rate of \< 1% per year
    • female barrier method: cervical cap or diaphragm with spermicidal agent
    • tubal sterilization
    • vasectomy in male partner
    • hormone-containing contraceptive:

      • implants of levonorgestrel
      • injectable progesterone
      • oral contraceptives (either combined or progesterone only)
      • contraceptive vaginal ring
      • transdermal contraceptive patch
  10. Subject must be able to comply with the dosing instructions for study drug administration and be able to complete the study schedule of assessments.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Clinically-significant illness (other than HEV) or any other major medical disorder that, in the opinion of the investigator, may interfere with subject treatment, assessment or compliance with the protocol.
  2. Ribavirin administration within the last 28 days.
  3. Infection with the virus (defined as HCV RNA positive)
  4. Gastrointestinal disorder or post-operative condition that could interfere with the absorption of the study drug (for example, gastric bypass or severe ulcerative colitis).
  5. Difficulty with blood collection and/or poor venous access for the purposes of phlebotomy.
  6. Psychiatric hospitalization, suicide attempt, and/or a period of disability as a result of their psychiatric illness within the last 2 years. Subjects with psychiatric illness that is wellcontrolled on a stable treatment regimen for at least 12 months prior to screening or has not required medication in the last 12 months may be included.
  7. Significant drug allergy (such as anaphylaxis or hepatotoxicity).
  8. Pregnant or nursing female
  9. Clinically-relevant drug or alcohol abuse within 12 months of screening including any uncontrolled drug use within 6 months of screening. A positive drug screen will exclude subjects unless it can be explained by a prescribed medication; the diagnosis and prescription must be approved by the investigator. Uncontrolled users of intravenous drugs will not be permitted to enroll in the study.
  10. Use of any prohibited concomitant medications within 21 days of the Baseline/Day 1 visit.

    Use of Amiodaron as concomitant medication is prohibited within 60 days of Baseline/Day1 visit.

  11. Known to SOF or formulation .
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(15)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Informed consent

Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.

You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

Contraindication

A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.

BMI (body mass index)

Weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared. Example: 70 kg and 1.75 m gives 70 ÷ (1.75 × 1.75) ≈ 22.9.

What counts as overweight or obesity differs between countries (some use lower cut-offs), so go by the range the study states.

ECG (electrocardiogram)

A recording of the heart’s electrical activity, taken with stickers on the chest, arms and legs. It takes a few minutes and does not hurt.

Clinically significant

Judged by the study doctor to matter for your health or for the study. It is a doctor’s decision, so ask the study team if you are unsure whether something counts.

Platelets

Blood cells that help blood clot. Too few raises the risk of bleeding and bruising. A usual adult range is about 150–400 × 10⁹/L (150,000–400,000 per µL); each lab has its own reference range.

INR, PT and aPTT (clotting tests)

Blood tests of how long blood takes to clot. The INR is the prothrombin time (PT) put on a common scale; about 1 is usual for someone not taking a blood thinner.

Criteria often make an exception for people on a blood thinner such as warfarin, whose INR is raised on purpose.

ULN (upper limit of normal)

The top of the normal range for a blood test, as set by the laboratory that runs it. Each lab prints its own range next to your result.

“≤ 2.5 × ULN” means the result can be up to two and a half times that top value.

HbA1c

A blood test of average blood sugar over the past two to three months, given as a percentage or in mmol/mol. 6.5% (48 mmol/mol) or more is the usual threshold for diabetes, normally confirmed by a second test.

Creatinine clearance (CrCl)

How quickly the kidneys clear creatinine, a waste product, from the blood. A study may estimate it from a blood test with age, weight and sex (often by the Cockcroft–Gault formula), or measure it using blood and urine collected over a set time. Given in mL/min; higher is better.

Investigational drug or device

A drug or device being studied in a clinical trial.

It may be new, or already approved and being studied for another use, dose or form. Criteria often leave out people who took part in another study of one within a recent period, commonly 30 days or five half-lives.

Contraception

Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.

Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.

Hepatitis C tests

Hepatitis C is a virus that infects the liver. An HCV antibody test can stay positive after an infection has cleared (and is occasionally positive without one); an HCV RNA test shows whether the virus is there now.

After treatment, hepatitis C counts as cured when HCV RNA is still undetectable 12 weeks or more after the treatment ended. Studies often accept people cured this way.

Hypersensitivity

An allergy, or another reaction of the immune system, to a substance. “Hypersensitivity to the study drug” means a known allergic reaction to it — not every side effect a medicine can have.

Excipients

The other ingredients in a medicine besides the active drug, such as fillers, colours or preservatives.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 2
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
10 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Sofosbuvir

    Sofosbuvir 400 MG film-coated tablet, oral administration of one tablet once daily for 24 weeks.

    Drug: Sofosbuvir

Interventions

  • Sofosbuvir 400 MG Oral Tablet \[Sovaldi\]

    Also known as: Sovaldi

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Proportion of subjects who become HEV RNA negative after 24 weeks of therapy

    Measured by the proportion of subjects who become HEV RNA negative (HEV RNA undetectable)

    Time frame: after 24 weeks of therapy

Secondary outcomes

  1. Proportion of subjects who are HEV RNA negative 12 weeks after discontinuation of therapy

    Viral load measurement

    Time frame: 12 weeks after discontinuation of therapy (week 36)

  2. Additional efficacy evaluations include HEV RNA change from baseline during therapy

    Viral load and laboratory measurements

    Time frame: after 2 days, 4 days, 1 week, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, 12 weeks,16 weeks, 20 weeks, and 24 weeks of therapy

  3. Comparison of proportion of patients who are HEV RNA negative after rapid or slow decline of HEV viral load after 24 weeks of therapy

    Viral load measurement

    Time frame: after 24 weeks of therapy

  4. Proportion of subject who reached ALT normalization after 12 weeks and 24 weeks of therapy and 12 weeks after discontinuation of therapy

    Laboratory measurement

    Time frame: after 12 and 24 weeks of therapy and 12 weeks after discontinuation of therapy (week 36)

  5. Assessment of safety: Adverse events and safety laboratory tests will be collected throughout the study

    Collection of adverse events and safety laboratory tests

    Time frame: through study completion, an average of 36 weeks

07

Study locations

3 sites
  • Hannover Medical School, Clinic for Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Endocrinology
    Hanover, Lower Saxony 30625, Germany
  • Charité, Campus Virchow-Klinikum, Medical Department, Division of Hepatology and Gastroenterology
    Berlin, 13353, Germany
  • University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Center for Internal Medicine, I. Medical Clinic and Polyclinic
    Hamburg, 20246, Germany
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Cornberg M, Pischke S, Muller T, Behrendt P, Piecha F, Benckert J, Todt D, Steinmann E, Papkalla A, von Karpowitz M, Koch A, Lohse A, Hardtke S, Manns MP, Wedemeyer H. Sofosbuvir monotherapy fails to achieve HEV RNA elimination in patients with chronic hepatitis E - The HepNet SofE pilot study. J Hepatol. 2020 Sep;73(3):696-699. doi: 10.1016/j.jhep.2020.05.020. Epub 2020 Jul 2. No abstract available. PubMed 32624195 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reached

Ran from Dec 2017 to primary completion in Nov 2018, 11 months.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Sep 12, 2017
First posted
Sep 14, 2017
StartActual
Dec 7, 2017
Primary completionActual
Nov 26, 2018
CompletionActual
Feb 18, 2019
Last update
Mar 8, 2019
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Mar 8, 2019, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03282474
Collaborators
HepNet Study House, German Liverfoundation, Gilead Sciences, German Center for Infection Research
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Sep 14, 2017
Start date
Dec 7, 2017
Primary completion
Nov 26, 2018
Completion
Feb 18, 2019
Last update
Mar 8, 2019

Study contacts

Markus Cornberg, Prof. Dr.
principal investigator · Hannover Medical School, Clinic for Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Endocrinology

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in Mar 2019. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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Discussion

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Studies of the drug tested here: Sofosbuvir

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