Replies to post #37839 on Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

> IDIX – I think they should try a two-stage tx. regimen to avoid the total loss of riba's benefit. For example , 24 weeks of NM283 plus pegifn followed by 24 wks of pegifn plus riba (+/- NM283 , depending on whether they believe NM283 would add any benefit in the second stage)… Ideally this would have been examined in P2 trials; maybe the current studies have some arms like this.<

There are no arms like this in any of the trials to date and there are no plans for such a trial arm in phase-3—unless this is part of the undisclosed “creative idea” for the refractory setting.

[dewophile]

Thanks for your input..there very well may be a convergence (to a degree) in virologic clearance from end of treatment to end of follow up, as has been noted in prior rib-int vs interferon-only studies. question really is if this occurs it will be a question of degree (and the initial starting difference in undetectable rates end of treatment)

I know vrtx has looked at vx-950 and interferon without ribavirin, and I'd have to go back and look up their data, but they did have a coupld of pts (out of a small starting #)with detectable virus towards end of treatment period and was inferior to triple therapy so I gather their expanded trials will likely only have a triple therapy arm (followed by perhaps a shortened or variable period of peg-rib)

I have speculated on idix possibly pursuing a vrtx-like approach with ribavirin-peg following pretreatment with some nm-283 containing combination in a prior post. If rib does iteract with nm-283 activity i really don't see why they wouldn't add a rib-containing arm following nm-283/peg only instead of a triple therapy arm