Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

Perhaps ribavirin can be dosed at a much smaller QD amount when combined with direct-acting antivirals. No idea if that's feasible, but just offering that as a possibility.

Sure, it’s feasible to look at a lower dose of ribavirin, but this may not be a productive use of the limited set of variables a sponsor can test in a given clinical program. Moreover, ribavirin takes four weeks to reach a steady-state plasma concentration, so if you cut the dose significantly in a relatively short trial, ribavirin may not do much for the efficacy of the cocktail.

To date, no one has experimented with lowering the dose of ribavirin except to ensure safety on the fly—as, for instance, in the Boceprevir trial mentioned in #msg-50187183.