Biotech Values

[dewophile]

The problem is that combination therapy for the foreseeable future will be ONE direct antiviral coupled with immune boosters (at least in the largest naive population)

On another note, I'd be very curious to see the vtx drop-out rate in a larger trial. remember, they follow vx-950 therapy with soc which has very significant toxicity. their strategy of shortening the interferon-rib combo "consolidation" phase is a good one to minimize drop-outs and resistance/failure. I woudl also be very curious to see their svr rates among dropouts who only tolerated short exposures to interferon-rib.
It could be they still do well, or it could be that for those fragile, older hepC pts who can't tolerate ribavirin, a therapy with lower svr but lower toxicity (i.e. nm-283 interferon WITHOUT rib) may be tx of choice (or at least preferable) for these patients)..I woudl therefore argure in favor of a third arm consisting of just nm-283 and interferon in phase 3, despite the greater time/cost of such an expanded trial