Enanta Pharmaceuticals Inc (ENTA)

[biotech_researcher]

Gilead's HCV Challengers Near The Starting Gate

AbbVie, Bristol-Myers and Gilead are all expected to report final details of their studies at the International Liver Congress, meeting in London April 9 to 13. Company officials are keeping mum on exactly which studies will be presented, but abstracts will go online March 24. (Late-breaking abstracts, which appear right before the conference, often have the hottest data.)
Next-Generation Regimes
Further down the road, even more drugs are on the way. AbbVie and its partner Enanta Pharmaceuticals (ENTA) are already working on a next-generation regime that will treat more genotypes and also be simpler to take. (A common criticism of the 3D is that it's more complicated than Gilead's promised pill-a-day routine.) Earlier this month, Merck (MRK) also reported very strong phase-two results for its two-drug combo for genotype 1 patients, some of whom were co-infected with HIV. Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) last October acquired three HCV drugs from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), which it hopes to combine with its already approved Olysio into an all-oral regimen.
Sovaldi, meanwhile, has lately been under pressure both for its $1,000-a-pill price tag and concerns about sustainability — after all, one outcome of finding a curative drug is that the patient population eventually shrinks. Still, Morningstar analyst Damien Conover says Gilead has a first-mover advantage and such strong trial data that it likely will be the biggest player for the indefinite future.
"I think we'll have Gilead representing 50% of the hep C market," he told IBD. "AbbVie will take the lion's share of what's remaining."



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