Clinical Trial to Assess Safety and Efficacy of Combination Therapy: Hydroxychloroquine, Pegylated Interferon Alpha-2a and Ribavirin in Chronic Hepatitis C Subjects Non-responders to the Standard of Care Therapy.

• Change from baseline in physical examination [ Time Frame: Twice on study first week , once a week during treatment initiation at weeks 2,3 ,4, later during treatment period once a month at weeks 8-48 and at weeks 60 and 72 follow up visits post treatment ] [ Designated as safety issue: Yes ]
  Body system screaning
  
  
• Change from baseline in vital Signs [ Time Frame: Twice on study first week , once a week during treatment initiation at weeks 2,3 ,4, later during treatment period once a month at weeks 8-48 and at weeks 60 and 72 follow up visits post treatment ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  Heart Rate, Blood Presure, Respiratory Rate , Body temperature
  
  
• Change from baseline in clinical laboratory parameters [ Time Frame: Twice on study first week , once a week during treatment initiation at weeks 2,3 ,4, later during treatment period once a month at weeks 8-48 and at weeks 60 and 72 follow up visits post treatment ] [ Designated as safety issue: Yes ]
  Hematology, Blood Chemistry, Coagulation parameters, Urinalysis
  
  
• Change from baseline in adverse events [ Time Frame: Twice on study first week , once a week during treatment initiation at weeks 2,3 ,4, later during treatment period once a month at weeks 8-48 and at weeks 60 and 72 follow up visits post treatment ] [ Designated as safety issue: Yes ]
  All observed and or reported adverse events
  
  

• HCV RNA level [ Time Frame: at 4,12, 24, 48 and 72 weeks after treatment ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  Changes in HCV RNA levels, monitored along the study period. The efficacy of a HCQ-containing treatment regimen defined as the proportion of subjects with SVR i.e. undetectable HCV RNA <50 IU/ml) at 5 different time points: cEVR at 12 weeks, 4 weeks, 24 weeks, 48 weeks after treatment initiation and at 24 weeks after end of treatment (week 72).
  
  

This is a phase I/II, open clinical trial to assess the safety, tolerability and preliminary efficacy data of a fixed dose combination therapy of: HCQ, Peg-IFN alpha-2a and RBV in chronic hepatitis C genotype 1 infected subjects who failed to respond following a course of Peg-IFN and RBV Therapy (SoC). The study is a single center trial to be conducted at the Department of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, at Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel.

Overall, thirty six (36) patients will be recruited. All patients enrolled will have a documented history of chronic HCV disease and being non-responder on earlier Peg-IFN based treatment lasting for at least 12 consecutive weeks prior to study enrolment.

The expected duration of patient screening period prior to enrollment into this study is in-between six weeks (42 days) up to 2 days prior to the study enrollment day at visit 2 (verification of compliance with inclusion/exclusion criteria including clinical laboratory results). Eligible patients will be enrolled into the study and will be observed twice on the first week of the study, once a week during the initiation of the treatment period at weeks 2,3 and week 4, later during the treatment period once a month at weeks 8-48 and at two follow up visits post treatment to take place at week 60 and 72 (allowing a time window of ± 5 days for all visits).