Vertex Hep-C Drug Shows Promise

The current standard of care for hepatitis C patients is a weekly injection of long-acting alpha interferon combined with daily oral doses of a generic drug, ribavirin. A normal treatment course for Type 1 hepatitis C (the most prevalent form) takes 48 weeks to complete. But the standard treatment cures only about half of patients, and many patients find the side effects, such as flu-like symptoms, anemia and depression, difficult to tolerate.

Promising Results

The Vertex phase II studies underway are testing to see whether telaprevir plus various combinations of interferon and ribavirin (the standard treatment) can increase cure rates and/or shorten the duration of treatment. Researchers presented interim results from one of these studies, dubbed PROVE 1, at a European liver disease meeting held in Barcelona.

Of the 175 hepatitis C patients receiving telaprevir plus standard therapy in the PROVE 1 study, 79% reported having undetectable levels of virus in their bloodstream four weeks into treatment. By comparison, 11% of the 75 patients receiving placebo plus standard therapy reported having an undetectable viral load.

Beating back the hepatitis C virus to undetectable levels after just four weeks of treatment is what is known as a "rapid virologic response," or RVR. Previous studies of standard therapy alone have shown that patients who achieve an RVR can be treated for shorter periods of time (24 weeks instead of 48) and are more likely to become cured of hepatitis C.