Blockbuster hep C drug delivers positive data

Schering-Plough researchers unveiled new mid-stage data on the closely-watched hepatitis C therapy boceprevir which showed that viral loads for 75 percent patients taking the drug were reduced to undetectable levels. That is twice the efficacy rate provided by current standard therapies.

But in a sour note, the data also demonstrated that half of the patients receiving the experimental drug developed anemia, which could pose problems later if it has to compete for market share with Vertex's telaprevir.

"This is the highest sustained virologic response reported for any Phase II study of patients with genotype 1," said Dr. Paul Kwo, an associate professor at Indiana University School of Medicine and the study's chief investigator.

In the study, researchers recruited two groups of hep C patients. One was given only Pegintron and ribavirin, the standard approach, and the other group both those drugs along with boceprevir for 44 weeks. In the standard medicine group, 38 percent of the patients responded by seeing viral loads reduced to undetectable levels--half the efficacy rate seen in the boceprevir arm.

- see this release
- read the report from Reuters

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