biology

Glecaprevir/pibrentasvir

Glecaprevir/pibrentasvir is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Glecaprevir/pibrentasvir rather than just read about it. In short: Glecaprevir/pibrentasvir (G/P), sold under the brand names Mavyret and Maviret, is a fixed-dose combination medication used to treat hepatitis C. It contains glecaprevir and pibrentasvir.

Key takeaways

Glecaprevir/pibrentasvir belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Glecaprevir/pibrentasvir to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Glecaprevir/pibrentasvir from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Glecaprevir/pibrentasvir (G/P), sold under the brand names Mavyret and Maviret, is a fixed-dose combination medication used to treat hepatitis C. It contains glecaprevir and pibrentasvir. It works against all six types of hepatitis C. At twelve weeks following treatment between 81% and 100% of people have no evidence of hepatitis C. It is taken once a day by mouth with food. The most common side effects are headache, diarrhea, and tiredness. In those with a history of hepatitis B, reactivation may occur. It is not recommended in people with moderate to severe liver disease. Glecaprevir works by blocking the protein NS3/4A protease, while pibrentasvir works by blocking NS5A. The combination was approved for medical use in the United States and Europe in 2017. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines.

Medical uses In the United States, G/P is used to treat adults and children aged 12 years and older or weighing at least 99 pounds with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes 1–6 and both without cirrhosis and with compensated cirrhosis who have not been previously treated for HCV (treatment-naïve). It is also used to treat adults and children aged 12 years and older or weighing at least 99 pounds with chronic HCV genotype 1 infection who have previously been treated with a NS5A inhibitor or a NS3/4A inhibitor but not both. The duration of treatment was shortened from 12 weeks to eight weeks for many people in 2019. In the European Union, it is used to treat adults and adolescents aged 12 years and older with chronic (long-term) hepatitis C.

Side effects The only known side effects of G/P are hepatitis B reactivation, and more commonly headache, nausea, tiredness, and diarrhea.

Mechanism of action Glecaprevir inhibits NS3/4A, a serine protease, and pibrentasvir inhibits NS5A, a zinc-binding hydrophilic phosphoprotein. Both of these proteins are essential in hepatitis C viral RNA replication, which can no longer take place upon inhibition of these proteins.

History The development of G/P as a combination treatment was done by AbbVie and is in accordance with good manufacturing practice (GMP) standards, per the FDA. Initial identification of glecaprevir was done in a joint effort by AbbVie and Enanta Pharmaceuticals. Enanta had a Collaborative Development and License Agreement with AbbVie for the identification and development of paritaprevir and glecaprevir, two HCV NS3 and NS3/4A protease inhibitors, that lasted from October 2016 to June 2017. In this agreement, Enanta received a total of US$427,000 in the form of license payments, proceeds from a sale of preferred stock, research funding payments, milestone payments, and royalties. The identification and development of pibrentasvir was done by AbbVie.

Research During clinical trials, G/P was shown to be effective at clearing all six genotypes of HCV from the blood. Over the course of eight studies involving greater than 2,300 patients with hepatitis C, 99% of non-cirrhotic patients with genotype 1 were negative for HCV after the eight-week treatment regimen. Of cirrhotic patients from the same group, 97% tested negative for HCV on a 12-week treatment regimen and the results were reportedly similar for the treatment of genotypes 2 and 4–6, whereas 95% of patients with genotype 3 HCV tested negative for the virus after treatment.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Glecaprevir/pibrentasvir

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Glecaprevir/pibrentasvir claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Glecaprevir/pibrentasvir before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Glecaprevir/pibrentasvir ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Glecaprevir/pibrentasvir

In research: Glecaprevir/pibrentasvir appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Glecaprevir/pibrentasvir in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Glecaprevir/pibrentasvir is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Combination antiviral drugs, Drugs developed by AbbVie, NS3/4A protease inhibitors, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Glecaprevir/pibrentasvir outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Glecaprevir/pibrentasvir in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Glecaprevir/pibrentasvir means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Glecaprevir/pibrentasvir out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Glecaprevir/pibrentasvir in simple terms?

Glecaprevir/pibrentasvir (G/P), sold under the brand names Mavyret and Maviret, is a fixed-dose combination medication used to treat hepatitis C. It contains glecaprevir and pibrentasvir.

Why does Glecaprevir/pibrentasvir matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Glecaprevir/pibrentasvir?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Glecaprevir/pibrentasvir.