clevudine
"Something here doesn’t compute, and I think it’s VRUS’ outsized claims about Clevudine’s MoA."
I don't have a strong opinion on this and to be sure much of what i know comes from company claims, so i tend to agree with you actually. that said, there is a study out there showing virus remained suppressed 24 weeks off clevudine therapy - something not seen with other nukes. could be a fluke. could be 24 weeks won't equate to truly durable response. but it will be interesting to see results of pharmasett's study
"If Clevudine also had a MoA that was far superior to other second-generation nukes in its ability to clear cccDNA, wouldn’t you expect Clevudine to by the leading second-generation nuke in Korea by a wide margin? I would"
i don't think there is enough data to convince docs of this sustained response w clevudine, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. putting myself in the MD's shoes I wouldn't take a pt off therapy unless there was better data on this (or i had a rare sAg conversion), so going by potency and resistance alone baraclude is about as good as it gets
" dual advantages of being marketed by a Korean company "
i've never once factored in the nationality of the company when deciding what drug to prescribe. for all we know BMY has a better korean sales team!
BTW i don't own VRUS - i am jsut marginally interested in clevudine becasue IF durable response can be achieved in even a modest proportion of pts then combination studies with interferon will surely follow in the hope (and likelihood i would think) that such a combination can further improve SVR. OTOH if evolution of therapy is geared more towards suppression of resistance then studies looking at combo with other nukes makes more sense
jmo
