Pharmasset to Challenge Vertex Hepatitis C Treatment, BMO Says

Pharmasset Inc.’s experimental hepatitis C therapies may pose a challenge to treatments from Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., based on trial results to be released in late March, BMO Capital Markets Corp. analysts said.

Two drugs from Pharmasset showed “impressive” figures as stand-alone medications or combination therapies, while results from a two-drug combination from Vertex weren’t good enough to justify more patient studies, the analysts, led by Jason Zhang in Montreal, wrote in a research report to investors yesterday, citing abstracts of the trials.