>> VRTX-The impressive efficacy of VX-950 isn't in question. It's been out there for awhile now about how well the drug clears the HCV viral load. The remaining question mark for VX-950 is safety, specifically the monkey toxicity studies, which have yet to be conducted. <<
I agree with you that the safety issue is a remaining question mark , and VRTX is hardly home free at this point. However , unless I missed something presented previously , this is the first I've seen of viral load measurements beyond 28 days. Thw rapid viral load reduction by VX-950 ( 2 days , 14 days , 28 days , whatever ) is old news. That kind of viral load reduction , that early , is an encouraging signal of possibly impressive SVR rates , but it is no guarantee. Negative HCV RNA at 12 weeks post-VX-950 is no guarantee either , but it's getting a whole lot closer to being one , IMO.
I've seen figures that have shown that > 80% of patients ( on pegifn + riba) that are HCV-RNA negative at 12 weeks go on to achieve SVR. This was in mixed genotype , naive patients , I believe. If the 8-patient study results holds up in larger trials , and achieve SVR results in this range ( after only 14 days of VX-950!) , it will be big news. Thus I consider the recent 12-week data to be very important , and real news , not a re-hash.
There will be opinions on both sides of this, on this board and elsewhere, for the next week or so , I'm sure. ;-)
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