Taking an injectable drug for three months is better than taking it for six months, but it's not as good as avoiding it altogether. What's a hepatitis C drugmaker to do?
Vertex Pharmaceuticals
As part of the same trial, the drug was combined with another oral medication, ribavirin, and Pegasys, which has to be injected. Patients taking the four-drug combo fared considerably better. At the higher dose of VX-222, half of the patients had undetectable virus levels at weeks two and eight, so they were able to stop the combination after just 12 weeks; all but one of those (93%) were virus-free 12 weeks after stopping treatment.
Those who didn't qualify to stop early remained on Pegasys and ribavirin for a total of 24 weeks, the current standard. Of the patients who completed the study, 100% had undetectable virus levels 12 weeks after stopping treatment.
If you combine the two treatment times and add in the dropouts, you still get a solid 90% response rate, with the added benefit that about half the patients can cut back on the time they have to take Pegasys.
If Vertex was the only one in this space, it would be sufficient for VX-222 to improve the current standard of care, but the hepatitis C treatment space is becoming increasingly crowded. Pharmasset
Given the vast number of oral hepatitis C drugs in development, it's a safe assumption that some combination of medications is going to work as well -- and, more likely, better than -- the current treatments that require Pegasys or Merck's
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