Merck's Hepatitis C Treatment Suppresses Virus In Two Large-Scale Studies
Merck & Co.’s hepatitis C treatment boceprevir helped suppress the virus better than a placebo in two large-scale studies.
In the trials the drug significantly increased the number of patients whose virus was at undetectable levels six months after stopping treatment, the company said today in a statement. The trials are the third and last round usually needed before applying for regulatory approval, which Merck said it will seek in the U.S. and Europe this year.
Boceprevir could have more than $500 million in sales by 2014, said Seamus Fernandez, an analyst with Leerink Swann & Co. in a research report. The company got the drug in its $49.6 billion acquisition last year of Schering-Plough Corp. The drug may compete with Roche Holding AG’s Pegasys with $1.5 billion in sales last year and Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. telaprevir, currently in late-stage testing.
The drug is Merck’s “most impactful near-term treatment opportunity to affect human health,” said Peter Kim, Merck’s head of research and development in a conference call today. He said the drug could “help to change the landscape of treatment for hepatitis C.”
Merck, based in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, rose 37 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $35.19 at 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Vertex, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, gained $1.02, or 2.9 percent, to $36.26 in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading.
Hard To Treat
Merck’s treatment is for patients with a common and hard- to-treat form of the virus known as genotype 1. About 3 million people in the U.S. and 170 million worldwide have hepatitis C, a blood-borne infection that is the main cause of liver cancer. The virus often damages the liver over time and is responsible for about two-thirds of all liver transplants.
In the trial called HCV Respond-2, which consisted of 403 patients who had failed prior treatments, 66 percent of patients had their virus suppressed after 48 weeks of treatment, 59 percent benefited when given the drug for 36 weeks, and 21 percent responded to the placebo.
In a second study, called Sprint-2, which looked at 1,097 patients who had never treated their virus, 66 percent taking boceprevir for 48 weeks responded, 63 percent taking the drug for 28 weeks benefited, and 38 percent suppressed their virus with a placebo.
In both trials, patients also took two older drugs, Pegintron and Rebetol, along with either the boceprevir or a placebo, the company said. Merck plans to release full results of the studies at a medical meeting in November.
To contact the reporter responsible for this story: Shannon Pettypiece at spettypiece@bloomberg.net.
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