Biotech Values

[dewophile]

interferon and HCV

there are small molecule drugs in development that aim to increase endogenous interferon, so a hypothetical soc all oral cocktail may in fact include an interferon component

in general though i agree w your premise - interferon can always add something to efficacy, but whether or not direct acting all oral cocktails will have sufficient success to not warrant the SEs associated with interferon remains to be seen. fwiw i think the statement "virtually everyone in the field thinks this will happen in due course" may include some who counted on INF-boosting oral agents and/or never imagined an effective INF with a very clean SE profile would ever come to pass

PS: in my reading i came across an interesting tidbit. if you give interferon during the acute phase of infection (as monotherapy) there is a >90% cure rate even for genotype 1 (and is largely felt to be why 50% of pts exposed do not become chronic carriers)