About the Authors
- Graham R. Foster
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* E-mail: g.r.foster@qmul.ac.uk
Affiliation Institute of Cellular and Molecular Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom
- Carmine Coppola
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Affiliation Unità Operativa Epatologia ed Ecografia Interventistica Ospedale Gragnano, Naples, Italy
- Moutaz Derbala
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Affiliation Hamad Medical Hospital, Doha, Qatar
- Peter Ferenci
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Affiliation Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Alessandra Orlandini
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Affiliation Unit of Infectious Diseases and Hepatology, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Parma, Parma, Italy
- K. Rajender Reddy
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Affiliation University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America
- Ludovico Tallarico
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Affiliation Divisione di Medicina, Ospedale Elena D’Aosta, Naples, Italy
- Mitchell L. Shiffman
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Affiliation Liver Institute of Virginia, Bon Secours Health System, Newport News/Richmond, Virginia, United States of America
- Silke Ahlers
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Affiliation PROMETRIS GmbH, Mannheim, Germany
- Georgios Bakalos
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Affiliation F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Basel, Switzerland
- Tarek Hassanein
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Affiliation University of California San Diego, San Diego, California, United States of America
- GUARD-C Study Group
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¶Membership of the GUARD-C Study Group is provided in the Acknowledgments.
Competing Interests
The authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: G. R. Foster reports Speaker and consultancy fees from Roche, Merck, Gilead Sciences, Novartis, AbbVie, Janssen, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Boehringer Ingelheim, Idenix, Achillion. C. Coppola and M. Derbala report no competing interests. P. Ferenci reports the following interests: Global Advisory board: Roche/Genentech, Merck; Advisor: AbbVie, Gilead Sciences, Janssen, Achillion; Speaker’s bureau: Roche, MSD Austria, Janssen Austria, BMS Austria, Gilead Sciences, AbbVie, Boehringer Ingelheim; Unrestricted research grant: Roche Austria. A. Orlandini reports no competing interests. K.R. Reddy reports the following interests: Advisory Board: Merck, Gilead Sciences, AbbVie, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Genentech-Roche, Idenix, Novartis, Janssen, Vertex. Research Support: Merck, Gilead, Bristol-Myers Squibb, AbbVie, Janssen, Vertex. L. Tallarico has no competing interests. M.L. Shiffman has the following interests: Advisory board: AbbVie, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Boehringer Ingelheim, Gilead Sciences, Hologic, Janssen, Merck, Novartis, Roche/Genentech and Vertex; Grant support from AbbVie, Achillion, Beckman-Colter, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Boehringer Ingelheim, Conatus, Gilead Sciences, Hologic, Intercept, Lumena, Merck and Novartis; and speaker fees from Abbvie, Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Gilead, Janssen, Merck, Roche/Genentech and Vertex. S. Ahlers is an employee of PROMETRIS GmbH the clinical research organization providing data management and statistical services to Roche. G. Bakalos is an employee of F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, Basel, Switzerland. T. Hassanein has reveived the following Research Grants: AbbVie, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eisai, Gilead Sciences, Idenix, Ikaria, Janssen, La Jolla Pharmaceuticals, Merck, Mochida, NGM BioPharmaceuticals, Roche, Ocera, Sundise, Salix, TaiGen, Takeda, Tobria, Vertex, Vital Therapies. He is also on the following advisory boards: AbbVie, Bristol-Myers Squibb. Speaker: Baxter, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Gilead Sciences, Salix. Peginterferon alfa-2a (PEGASYS®) and ribavirin (COPEGUS®) are both products marketed by F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Basel, Switzerland and protected by various intellectual property rights. There are no other patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials, as detailed online in the guide for authors.
Author Contributions
Conceived and designed the experiments: GRF PF KRR MLS TH. Performed the experiments: CC MD AO LT. Analyzed the data: GRF PF KRR MLS SA GB. Wrote the paper: GRF CC MD PF AO KRR LT MLS SA GB TA.