The evidence continues to pile up, in advance of the AASLD confab this weekend, that Vertex's telaprevir is curing the vast majority of even the most difficult to treat Hep C cases -- those that failed prior course of therapy (often on Schering-Plough's current regimen of Hep C treatments). In addition, Schering-Plough's next generation of Hep C candidate, boceprevir -- while promising, is not showing nearly the efficacy profile that telaprevir is, in the "prior treatment failed" patient population.
Adam Feurstein, for The Street.com -- at the keyboard (do go read it all):
. . . .The new data released Wednesday, therefore, appear to bolster Vertex's claim that telaprevir can improve the cure rate for even the most difficult-to-treat patients -- those who don't respond to standard hepatitis C therapy of long-acting interferon and ribavirin.
That claim needs to be proven, of course, which is why Vertex is running telaprevir through an extensive phase III trial program.Results from studies in both treatment-naive and treatment-failure hepatitis C patients are expected in the middle of next year.
Vertex has competition in the race to develop the first new drug that acts directly against the virus causing hepatitis C. Schering-Plough(SGP Quote) also has a drug, boceprevir, in phase III studies which has shown promising results in earlier studies. However, boceprevir doesn't appear to work as well as telaprevir in treatment-resistant patients. . . .
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