Hepatitis C virus drug-drug interactions: a comparison of online drug interaction databases.

OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this study was to quantify and compare potential drug-drug interactions between hepatitis C medications and comedications across six online drug-drug interaction databases.

METHODS

Investigators assessed drug-drug interactions between prescription and non-prescription medications with ribavirin and five hepatitis C virus direct-acting antiviral regimens, across online drug-drug interaction databases. The primary outcome was the number of drug pairs that resulted in potential interactions.

KEY FINDINGS: A total of 1488 medication pairs were evaluated for each database and varying potential interactions were identified. Variability also existed among identification of potentially contraindicated drug pairs, and only 2 of 41 (4.9%) of these pairs were identified as contraindicated by all 6 databases.

CONCLUSIONS

Due to institutional differences and inconsistencies in the identification of potential drug-drug interactions, clinical judgment is imperative, and cross-referencing multiple databases can offer additional insight.