Biotech Values

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Merck may be late to the blockbuster party with its new hepatitis C drugs, but the pharma giant is moving fast with a top contender boasting high cure rates.

Merck unveiled interim Phase II results for an oral combination of MK-5172, its NS3/4A protease inhibitor, and MK-8742, an NS5A, among patients with chronic HCV genotype 1 infection. After 12 weeks of therapy 42 of 43 patients--98%--demonstrated a sustained viral response. The combination plus ribavirin hit a 94% cure rate. And the drugs did it without any injections of interferon, which is widely hated by patients.



Read more: Watch out Gilead, Merck is mounting a hep C combo comeback - FierceBiotech http://www.fiercebiotech.com/story/watch-out-gilead-merck-mounting-hep-c-combo-comeback/2014-04-10#ixzz2yTgdM1Ml
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Merck announces data from C-WORTHy study

Merck announced additional data from the ongoing C-WORTHy study, a multi-arm Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of a once-daily, all-oral regimen combining MK-5172, an investigational hepatitis C virus, or HCV, NS3/4A protease inhibitor, and MK-8742, an investigational HCV NS5A replication complex inhibitor, among patients with chronic HCV Genotype 1 infection, or GT1.

In an interim analysis of treatment-naïve, non-cirrhotic patients administered a 12-week regimen of MK-5172/MK-8742, with and without ribavirin, or RBV, a sustained viral response, or SVR, was observed in 98% of patients administered MK-5172/MK-8742 alone and 94% in those administered MK-5172/MK-8742 plus RBV.