August 5, 2010 - Boceprevir May Increase Effectiveness Of Existing Hepatitis C Treatment.

The New York Times (8/5, B3, Pollack) reported, "Merck said that its drug boceprevir, when added to the existing therapy, effectively cured about two-thirds of patients with hepatitis C. That was far better than the cure rate with the existing therapy alone." Merck "is in a heated race with Vertex Pharmaceuticals to bring to market the first of a new class of hepatitis C drugs that are expected to make treatment far more effective and possibly shorter in duration." Still, the "initial reading of Wall Street was that boceprevir might be a bit less attractive than Vertex's candidate, telaprevir, in part because Merck's drug caused fairly high rates of anemia." Addition of a very inexpensive medication for diabetes – metformin – has also been associated with an increase in cure rate with the standard treatement. The Wall Street Journal (8/5, Loftus) reported that the Merck drug is to be added to the standard hepatitis C treatment of pegylated interferon and ribavirin. Merck reported sustained virologic response (SVR) rates of 66% in those taking standard treatment plus boceprevir for 48 weeks versus 59% in those taking the same combination but who could shorten treatment duration to 36 weeks if their virus counts fell to certain levels; and 21% for those on standard treatment plus placebo for 48 weeks. A second study of 1,097 patients who had no prior treatment and similar groupings found SVR rates of 66% in the boceprevir 48-week arm; 63% in the shortened-duration arm, in which patients could stop treatment after 28 weeks; and 38% in the standard-treatment arm. Reuters (8/5, Pierson, Berkrot) and Bloomberg News (8/5, Pettypiece) also cover the story.