Biotech Values

[kamehameha]

pretty accurate description of VRUS HCV strategy:
found here
http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/Stocks_%28A_to_Z%29/Stocks_V/threadview?m=tm&bn=19596&tid=39060&mid=39060&tof=2&frt=2

"The Pharmasset playbook
Here's Pharmasset's problem: How can we market an inferior drug regimen for treatment of GT1 Hep C when we have already seen how miserably Merck's inferior Victrelis has failed against Vertex's superior Incivek? Solution: Get a label for the all-oral PSI-7977/ribavirin from FDA that somehow includes some GT1 patients. The Neutrino study is designed to show GT1 Hep C patients that cannot tolerate interferon achieve some cure rate greater than placebo. Next, when you get that label from the FDA that includes treatment of GT1 Hep C patients intolerant of interferon, you market PSI-7977/ribavirin to everyone with Hep C in the U.S. saying it is the only all-oral treatment for all Hep C patients. Of course, you need to make the numbers look good so use the Neutrino results which include the confounding variable of GT2/3 Hep C patients mixed in with the GT1 Hep C patients. In the U.S., GT1 Hep C represents about 75% of patients with the remaining 25% being GT2/3 Hep C. The easier to cure GT2/3 Hep C patients should have nearly a 100% cure rate with PSI-7977/ribavirin. For the GT 1 patients, if the cure rate were to match the Victrelis regimen at 66% (a great achievement but still far behind the 79% cure rate of the Incivek regimen), the numbers could then be combined with the 100% cure rate for GT2/3 Hep C patients and yield an overall cure rate of 75% across genotypes 1, 2 and 3. The marketing message will go like this: Pharmassett has the first all-oral Hep C regimen with a 75% cure rate across all genotypes commonly seen in the U.S. Of course, there will be a footnote in fine print stating that with respect to GT1 Hep C patients, PSI-7977/ribavirin is only indicated in those that cannot tolerate interferon. But, of course, no one wants to take interferon if they do not have to, so Pharmasset's message will be that everyone should be treated with PSI-7977/ribavirin."

btw, how are patients selected that do not tolerate interferon? are these the ones that have encountered problems in previous treatments, or what?