Enanta Pharmaceuticals Inc (ENTA)

[willyw]

Natap: Hepatology Article:
http://www.natap.org/

"Towards the Elimination of Hepatitis C in the United States

Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major medical and public health concern. Across the
globe, approximately 170 million people are believed to be infected (1). In the United States, the
prevalence is approximately 2% with between 5 and 7 million Americans infected with HCV (2).
Chronic hepatitis C is a systemic infection and an important factor in morbidity and mortality. "

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My comment;
This is one of the highest HCV infection estimates I have seen for the USA.
One could think; This could be the result of increased screening, or it could be a result of the opioid epidemic, coupled with decreased spending for various program (education, needle exchange, etc).

My take on it is that we are not seeing a decrease in infections; perhaps there are more HCV+ people in the USA to be treated than were thought 5 or 10 years ago. Given current resources, it will take some time to draw down the infected population. A shorter treatment program that can be administered non-specialists should do well.

We are now in the first full year of Mavyret negotiated prices. Enanta should be in all the markets, all the payors, all the programs. I would think that this could be a good year for abbvie and enta. There were some that felt that the prescriptions had peaked in 2017. I myself wondered money had run out for the year.

Mavyret should be in all the markets this year.
We started with a large drop in share price, but the selling at year end did not have great volume, and this drop due to the downgrade does not seem to have great commitment.

(also)
I have not noticed any updates for EDP-305 at clinical trials. I can't see that they started phase

I remain optimistic about prospects for 2018