Replies to post #85455 on Biotech Values

[ghmm]

Re: VX-813/VX-985

Don't want to speak for Dew by my thinking is they are dead because of side-effect or viral load reductions not being up to par with competitors compounds in Phase 1-2.

Is VRTX just naive and thinking that telaprevir can't be improved upon to a much greater degree

I get a kick out of just about every call when they say telaprevir sets a high bar that its hard to improve upon :-).

It would be huge for ITMN/Roche if BID Telaprevir is a flop and Ritonavir+191 allows for QD dosing (but I'll be happy with lower BID dosing).

[DewDiligence]

Why would VRTX drop the second-gen PIs? Is VRTX just naive and thinking that telaprevir can't be improved upon to a much greater degree or, what I assume, does VRTX just not believe that these two compounds do not improve upon telaprevir enough coupled with the fact that they're so far behind?

(I presume you did not intend to have a second not in the above sentence.) Timing is the key issue, IMO. To develop its own all-oral HCV cocktail, VRTX wants a PI that is at least as far advanced as its polymerase inhibitor, VX-222, and only Telaprevir meets this requirement among the in-house options. VX-813 and VX-985 are about 18-24 months too late.