Biotech Values

[mcbio]

GILD—Although extending treatment from 12w to 16w clearly helped, the SVR gap between genotype-2 and genotype-3 remained as wide as ever in the FUSION study: 94% (16w) and 86% (12w) for genotype 2 vs. 62% (16w) and 30% (12w) for genotype-3. Thus, even with 16w of treatment, genotype-2 patients did 3,200 basis points better than genotype-3 patients.

So, what's the answer for better response rates moving forward in GT3? I know this was just sofosbuvir plus ribavirin. Is it simply a matter of combining sofosbuvir with the GILD 2nd gen NS5A? Do we just need a better 2nd gen NS5A? Or do we need both a better 2nd gen nuke and a better 2nd gen NS5A?

As we know, there's a huge opportunity for anyone that can add meaningfully to GT3 treatment. This is why I think a bit more of IDIX than I did before given the prospects for their 2nd gen NS5A. Also, if there is room for a nuke to improve upon sofosbuvir in the 2nd gen HCV nuke space against GT3, that could be good news for IDIX or Medivir given their follow-on uridine nukes at the pre-clinical stage.