Replies to post #106823 on Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

Thanks for your reply. I’d be inclined to agree with your numbers if the 2-drug cocktail in question consisted of a PI/nuke or NS5A/nuke, but not for the PI/non-nuke regimen actually being tested by VRTX.

[DewDiligence]

Telaprevir+VX-222: VRTX discontinued the low-dose all-oral arm (100mg BID of VX-222) of the phase-2 trial due to viral breakthrough, but is continuing the high-dose all-oral arm (400mg BID of VX-222):

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Vertex-Pharmaceuticals-bw-2098962608.html?x=0&.v=1

The company will discontinue Arm A of this study as a result of patients meeting a pre-defined stopping rule related to viral breakthrough during the first four weeks of dosing. Arm A was designed to evaluate a two-drug regimen of VX-222 (low dose; 100 mg) and telaprevir (1,125 mg) both dosed twice daily without pegylated-interferon and ribavirin. The additional three arms of the study are continuing without modification, and no viral breakthrough has been reported in these arms.

More evidence that a two-drug all-oral HCV regimen is probably not enough to get the job done, especially when the regimen does not include a nuke.