Japan has approved Bristol-Myers Squibb's all-oral hepatitis C virus cocktail for patients with genotype 1 virus (which account for ∼70% of infected people). The Daklinza (daclatasvir) and Sunvepra (asunaprevir) regimen, approved in July by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, is the first in a number of combinations nearing approval that contain no interferon or ribavirin. Daklinza is a highly selective hepatitis C nonstructural 5A (NS5A) inhibitor and Sunvepra is a novel NS3 protease inhibitor. Elsewhere, the combination has a favorable vote from the European Medicines Agency and a breakthrough therapy designation from the US Food and Drug Administration. The combination equaled Gilead's blockbuster Sovaldi (Nat. Biotechnol. 32, 3–5, 2014) in achieving near 100% 12-week cure rates. Therapies with the shortest treatment times are likely to prevail, so Bristol-Myers is aiming for a four-week therapy combining Daklinza and Sunvepra with Sovaldi. Gilead is also testing its own combinations in-house.