I haven't bothered to listen to New Merck's conference call web-archive yet, but whatever Whitehouse Station is saying on it, it won't change this central fact (reported here in May 2010), now echoed via Adam Feuerstein -- at TheStreet.com:
. . . .Vertex Pharmaceuticals Defeats Merck In The First Battle of the Hepatitis C Drug War. . . .
If approved, boceprevir may have a tough time competing against Vertex's hepatitis C drug telaprevir, which will also be filed for approval later this year. Results from a similar Vertex study in so-called "treatment-naïve" hepatitis C patients released in May showed that telaprevir plus the standard of care achieved a cure rate of 75%.
Moreover, patients can be cured of the hepatitis C virus using Vertex's telaprevir in as little as 24 weeks, while the shortest treatment duration with Merck's boceprevir is 28 weeks. . . .
More -- if there is anything worthwhile -- from that early-morning Merck call, shortly.
2 comments:
AGAIN? neither drug have been FDA approved. Telaprevir has rash side effects and Vertex doesn't have any drugs to beat Merck again... weird inaccurate comment. Both Telaprevir and Boceprevir have press releases that their drugs improve current treament.
I follow your larger point -- true, neither is approved.
I meant that the "again" would refer to the number of studies in which Vertex's telaprevir has shown stronger SVR rates (in non-responders, and treatment naive Hep C patients), when compared to Merck's boceprevir.
We'll see much more, when they each reach market in 2011. Vertex will clearly win the day.
Namaste
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