Warehoused Hepatitis C Patients May Boost Merck, J&J
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At Fred Poordad’s bustling hepatitis C clinic in the heart of Los Angeles, one in every five patients receives no treatment. They are waiting for a wave of new drugs, expected in the next 18 months, that may boost their chance at a cure by as much as 10-fold.
The medicines also may bolster the prospects of Merck & Co., Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Johnson & Johnson, the companies in a race to get the first new treatment to the market in a decade. About half of patients can’t tolerate the side effects of existing therapies, which generate $2 billion annually in sales. The new drugs could expand the market to $10 billion in five years, said Geoff Porges, an analyst for Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York.