Merck's Hepatitis C Study Falls Short, Its Loss Is Gilead's Gain

Shares of Merck are falling in Monday trading after the company's attempt to develop a Hepatitis C drug that would reduce treatment duration has fallen short. Merck attempted to reduce hepatitis C treatment to just four weeks by adding Gilead Sciences' drug, Sovaldi, to its oral two-drug combination. The company announced interim data from the C-SWIFT study that resulted in a 94.7% cure rate for eight weeks of treatment and an 80% cure rate for six weeks. However, the four-week treatment period had a cure rate of just 38.7%. Piper Jaffray senior research analyst Joshua Schimmer said in a note, 'Gilead seems well positioned to dominate the hepatitis C virus market with the cleanest/most efficacious regimens.'