Replies to post #176597 on Biotech Values

[dewophile]

This data is good but was largely expected - the EASL abstract from part A of the study looking at the first 65 patients has been available for some time now. It showed 100% SVR without rib (12/12) and 98% with rib (52/53) on a per protocol basis. Overall in this study there were no discontinuations in the rib free arms so per protocol and ITT are identical. in the rib arm there were 3 discountinuations (4%) which is why ITT was 94%. To give some context both GILD and ABBV had about 2% discontinuation in ph 3, so it's likely MRK will be right around the 96% SVR rate in larger trials on ITT basis unless some SE emerges in larger trials. The 8 week arm had an 83% SVR so that is clearly not competitive. it's curious they only added an 8 week arm for GT1a patients only, which is traditionally considered the harder to treat subgroup

[GrthzGd]

Novartis is still in the game too, via ENTA's NS5a inhibitor, EDP-239:

Novartis snags preclinical hep C drug in $440M Enanta pact (Feb. 2012)