Idenix Pharmaceuticals (IDIX)

[gofishmarko]

I'd be happy with a qualitative disclosure that made clear what was going on as regards antiviral activity , and maybe we will , in fact , get that. I just got a bad feeling in my gut listening to the Q & A session but that may be related to what was actually in my gut , rather than what was said on the call. Without disclosing details , I'll just say I'm not as pessimistic now.

One abstract that I saw in the EASL program might portend good things for Tyzeka combined with pegifn. The idea was that rapid viral load decline in patients treated with pegifn is associated with higher rates of serocoversion and off-treatment viral suppression , similar to the situation in HCV.
Given the potent antiviral activity of Tyzeka , the combo studies may yield unexpectedly good results if this association holds. There's some evidence that addition of ribavirin might help in this situation as well , though it's scant and not too convincing at this point. Anyway , just a thought that the ifn-combo treatment strategy is one that Tyzeka may be well suited for. Any treatment that significantly boosts HbsAg seroconversion would be big news since that's the HBV equivalent of SVR in HCV , and combos of direct antivirals with ifn or other immunomodulators are the most likely route to get to that outcome , IMO. People are starting to measure sAg levels during treatment , probably as a way to gain insights on the best way to reach that goal.