Vertex Again Key Player at Hep C Meeting

SAN FRANCISCO -- Every six months, hepatitis C researchers from around the world gather to discuss new ways of combating the serious liver disease. In recent years, these biannual confabs have largely revolved around the development of a new, more potent class of drug that promises to bring cures to a larger percentage of hepatitis C patients than ever before.

Like previous meetings, the one that kicked off over the weekend here will have scientists (and the Wall Street investors and analysts who follow their work closely) talking a lot about Vertex Pharmaceuticals'(VRTX Quote) drug telaprevir.

Data being presented will show once again telaprevir's impressive ability to directly interfere with and eliminate the virus that causes hepatitis C in patients who have failed previous treatments and in those who are being treated for the first time.

Competitors to Vertex are here, too. Schering-Plough(SGP Quote) will present data on the ability of its experimental drug boceprevir to eliminate the hepatitis C virus in previously untreated patients. Companies with drugs in less advanced clinical trials, including Pharmasset(VRUS Quote), InterMune(ITMN Quote), Boehringer Ingelheim, Johnson & Johnson(JNJ Quote), Merck(MRK Quote) and Pfizer(PFE Quote), also will be presenting new or updated data.

For many biotech investors, Vertex remains a central focus of these hepatitis C meetings because the company is in the midst of conducting two large phase III studies of telaprevir, with the first results expected in the first half of 2010.

Vertex intends telaprevir to become the first new hepatitis C drug approved in years, and one that will dramatically increase the cure rate for the disease, and do so in half the time of currently approved drugs. If the plan succeeds, Vertex will grab a large share of a multi-billion dollar commercial market opportunity.