While Sangamo was making waves with its news on Carl June's latest gene therapy study, two other developers were reporting successes with their experimental treatments at ICAAC.
Bristol-Myers Squibb ($BMS) reported that its experimental hepatitis C treatment--MS-790052--effectively cured 83% of patients after 24 weeks of therapy. BMS's Douglas Manion, vice president of development and virology, told Bloomberg that "the new standard of care should be 60% to 80% cure rates."
That program is now headed into late stage studies. Leerink Swann has estimated peak sales at $125 million. BMS has four programs ongoing for hepatitis C, a hot field that has attracted considerable attention with the marketing success of Vertex's Incivek.
NexBio says its flu treatment, DAS181, spurred a drop in the virus level of patients in a mid-stage study. The inhaled treatment works by preventing the virus from entering cells, offering a new approach to treating influenza that may work among patients who aren't responding to standard therapies. And that may offer a second line of defense for the next pandemic.
"In the back of everyone's mind is the concern about the ongoing evolution of the virus, and the potential there could be a new pandemic strain that's resistant to the current treatments," Ron Moss, vice president of clinical development for San Diego-based NexBio, told Bloomberg. "Everyone's biggest fear is 1918."
- read the Bloomberg story on NexBio's anti-flu drug
- and the article on Bristol-Myers' hepatitis C drug