A Phase 3 interventional study of Lonafarnib and Ritonavir in Hepatitis D, Chronic, sponsored by Soroka University Medical Center. Completed at 3 sites in 3 countries. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-04-30.
Sponsored by Soroka University Medical Center · Phase 3, Interventional, and Treatment
Open label, single arm, multi-center clinical trial of lonafarnib 50 mg QD plus ritonavir 200 mg QD, administered orally, over a 48-week treatment period, with a 24-week post-treatment follow-up period, in patients with chronic Hepatitis D Virusinfection.
Objectives: To evaluate the safety and tolerability of once daily dosing of lonafarnib 50 mg with ritonavir 200 mg over a 48-week treatment period.
To evaluate the effect of once daily dosing of lonafarnib 50 mg with ritonavir 200 mg over a 48-week treatment period with a 24-week post-treatment follow-up on HDV viral levels.
Trial population: Up to 30 patients with chronic HDV infection with detectable HDV RNA and compensated liver disease.
Background: Hepatitis D virus (HDV) was identified as the infectious agent causing viral hepatitis in the presence of hepatitis B virus (HBV). While HDV can replicate autonomously inside the hepatocyte, the virus requires co-infection with HBV to complete virion assembly and to facilitate transmission. HDV causes the most severe form of viral hepatitis, with rapid progression to cirrhosis and high rates of development of hepatocellular carcinoma. Currently there are no FDA approved therapies for chronic HDV infection (CHD) which presents an unmet medical need. The off-label use of pegylated interferon alpha (Alpha) for the treatment of CHD has so far been explored in several small single-arm studies and in 2 randomized controlled clinical trials, showing limited efficacy and high relapse rates. In addition, Alpha is associated with a poor tolerability profile and its use is limited in patients with advanced disease.
Lonafarnib (LNF), a FT inhibitor has been evaluated in over 2,000 subjects in clinical studies, comprising more than fifty Phase 1 and Phase 2 studies and two Phase 3 studies, with healthy subjects and patients with HDV, cancer, Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS) and progeroid laminopathies. Treatment with LNF has been administered as continuous (up to 11 years in HGPS) and intermittent therapy (exceeding one year in cancer patients).
The use of LNF in CHD has been assessed in a proof of concept study, a series of four phase 2 clinical trials (the LOWR program) and an on-going phase 3 clinical trial (D-LIVR study).
Hypothesis: that treatment with LNF50/RTV200 QD for 48 weeks will be safe and lead to a reduction in HDV RNA levels at end of treatment and end of follow up.
Procedures: At baseline, systems review, physical examination, vital signs (temperature, blood pressure, pulse rate per minute), anthropometric measurements (weight, height and BMI) and ECG will be performed. Information regarding the use of alcohol and drugs, symptoms and use of concomitant medications collected. Blood will be drawn for testing of local CBC, chemistry, coagulation studies, HDV antibody and RNA levels, HCV antibody (\& RNA if necessary), HBsAg levels, HBeAg status, HBV DNA levels, liver elastography and ultrasound. All blood tests besides HDV RNA levels, will be performed at a local lab. HDV RNA level testing will be performed at a central laboratory. Pregnancy test will be performed in females of child-bearing potential. Trial medications will be dispensed. Use of anti-HBV therapy (tenofovir or entecavir) will be confirmed.
Follow up visits will be conducted at week 4, 12, 24, 36 and 48 of treatment and at 24 weeks after stopping treatment and will include systems review, ECG recordings, evaluation of concomitant medications use, adverse events monitoring and assessment of compliance with trial medications and anti HBV therapy. In addition, blood will be drawn for measurement of CBC, chemistry panel, coagulation tests and HDV RNA and HBV DNA levels at each visit. Trial medications will be dispensed at each visit during the treatment phase of trial.
Adverse events and concomitant medications will be collected throughout the trial.
Data to capture:
Safety data collected during the trial (e.g., AEs and laboratory test results) will be monitored on an ongoing basis by the trial team.
43 studies on the registry are indexed under Hepatitis D, Chronic; 9 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 10 is below the median of 46 across 30 interventional studies indexed under Hepatitis D, Chronic.
Browse Hepatitis D, Chronic studies →Soroka University Medical Center is the lead sponsor of 160 studies on the registry; 2 are open to participants now.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
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.
For female patients:
For male patients:
Exclusion Criteria:
Long-term treatment (> 2 weeks) before or during the trial with agents that have a high risk for nephrotoxicity or hepatotoxicity.
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.
Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. These are separate tests: HBsAg positive usually means a current infection (a recent vaccination can briefly cause it too); total anti-HBc (HBcAb) positive means an infection now or in the past; HBV DNA measures how much virus is in the blood.
Some studies accept a past infection if HBV DNA is undetectable, sometimes with antiviral medicine during the study. Check what this study allows.
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.
Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.
Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.
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.
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.
On an ECG, the QT interval is the time the heart’s lower chambers take to activate electrically and recover in each beat. QTc is that time adjusted for heart rate (QTcF by Fridericia’s formula, QTcB by Bazett’s). Some medicines lengthen it, and a long QTc can raise the risk of a dangerous heart rhythm.
The study may name a correction formula and a limit in milliseconds, often around 450–480.
Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).
Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.
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.
Periods have stopped for good: usually no period for 12 months in a row without another medical reason, sometimes confirmed by a blood test (FSH).
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.
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.
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.
The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.
Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.
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.
A condition in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, type 1 diabetes or inflammatory bowel disease.
Immunotherapy studies often leave out active autoimmune disease, and some name exceptions, such as thyroid disease on replacement hormone. Check the exceptions this study lists.
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
CYP3A is a group of enzymes, mainly CYP3A4, in the liver and gut that break down many medicines. Some medicines, supplements and foods (grapefruit, St John’s wort) slow them down or speed them up, which changes how much of a study drug stays in the body.
Studies list them so they can be avoided or switched; bring a list of everything you take, including supplements.
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.
Hepatitis B tests
Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. These are separate tests: HBsAg positive usually means a current infection (a recent vaccination can briefly cause it too); total anti-HBc (HBcAb) positive means an infection now or in the past; HBV DNA measures how much virus is in the blood.
Some studies accept a past infection if HBV DNA is undetectable, sometimes with antiviral medicine during the study. Check what this study allows.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
ALT and AST (liver enzymes)
Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.
Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
QT and QTc
On an ECG, the QT interval is the time the heart’s lower chambers take to activate electrically and recover in each beat. QTc is that time adjusted for heart rate (QTcF by Fridericia’s formula, QTcB by Bazett’s). Some medicines lengthen it, and a long QTc can raise the risk of a dangerous heart rhythm.
The study may name a correction formula and a limit in milliseconds, often around 450–480.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Childbearing potential
Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).
Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Postmenopausal
Periods have stopped for good: usually no period for 12 months in a row without another medical reason, sometimes confirmed by a blood test (FSH).
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
HIV
The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.
Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Autoimmune disease
A condition in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, type 1 diabetes or inflammatory bowel disease.
Immunotherapy studies often leave out active autoimmune disease, and some name exceptions, such as thyroid disease on replacement hormone. Check the exceptions this study lists.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Cancer (malignancy)
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
CYP3A (CYP3A4) inhibitors and inducers
CYP3A is a group of enzymes, mainly CYP3A4, in the liver and gut that break down many medicines. Some medicines, supplements and foods (grapefruit, St John’s wort) slow them down or speed them up, which changes how much of a study drug stays in the body.
Studies list them so they can be avoided or switched; bring a list of everything you take, including supplements.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Lonafarnib 50mg co-administered with ritonavir 200 mg
Drug: Lonafarnib · Drug: Ritonavir
once-daily dosing of lonafarnib 50 mg with ritonavir 200 mg over a 48-week treatment period.
Also known as: LNF
once-daily dosing of lonafarnib 50 mg with ritonavir 200 mg over a 48-week treatment period.
Also known as: Norvir
Viral load change
Change from baseline in HDV viral load at end of treatment
Time frame: 48 weeks
Viral load change
Change from baseline in HDV viral load at end of follow-up
Time frame: 72 weeks
HDV RNA levels below LLOQ
Proportion of patients with HDV RNA levels below limit of quantification (LLOQ) at end of treatment and end of follow up
Time frame: 72 weeks
Viral load change
Change from baseline in HDV viral load at weeks 4, 12 and 24
Time frame: 24 weeks
Safety: Rate of treatment-emergent and treatment-related severe adverse events
Number of severe adverse events related to treatment
Time frame: 72 weeks
Plan to share: No
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
This study is completed, as verified in Apr 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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Studies of the drugs tested here: Lonafarnib · Ritonavir
Soroka University Medical Center →