Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Drug Companies Making a Bundle On HCV, Vertex Stock On The Rise.....
Vertex jumps on hepatitis C drug advancement - UPDATE 1
BOSTON (AFX) -- Shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals jumped Tuesday on news that the company was preparing to initiate three key Phase IIb clinical trials for its hepatitis C drug candidate VX-950.
According to Vertex chief executive officer Joshua Boger, Vertex has already started a large-scale Phase IIb trial clinical trial in the U.S. that will test to see how long VX-950 can keep the body clear of the liver-destroying virus. A similar trial will be launched next month in Europe. The trials will consist of hepatitis C patients who have not yet received therapy for their condition.
Shares of Vertex closed up 4% at $30.75 after hitting a session high of $31.65.
Boger also said that Vertex will be initiating a Phase IIb trial later this year to see how the drug performs in patients who have already failed standard therapy for the disease. The three Phase IIb studies will all be monitoring patients for three to six months after therapy to see if the virus returns.
'We expect the first Phase II data in early 2007,' said Boger, adding that the company will have about 1,000 patients in VX-950 clinical trials by the beginning of 2007. 'We anticipate we'll be running some sort of Phase III trials starting in mid-2007.'
About 3.4 million Americans have hepatitis C, the company said. Currently, the standard hepatitis C therapy calls for bombarding a patient's body with two powerful drugs -- pegylated interferon and the antiviral medication ribavirin -- for up to a year.
Despite the treatment, which can be highly debilitating, the virus returns in about 50% of recipients. Patients are considered to have been treated successfully if their bodies show no sign of the virus six months after the treatment has ended.
Because of the need for better treatments, analysts have forecasted the market for hepatitis C drug could reach $8 billion in 2010, and that VX-950 should have peak sales of around $4 billion, if approved.Boger said the earliest Vertex could probably file to have VX-950 approved would be in 2008. He said the company still hopes to have the drug on the market in 2009.
Schering-Plough , meanwhile, also has a hepatitis C drug, SCH 503034, in Phase II clinical testing. Like VX-950, SCH 503034 belongs to a class of drugs known as protease inhibitors.
Boger said despite the similarities, that he remains confident that VX-950 is superior to Schering-Plough's candidate. 'The data so far suggests that our drug is as much as 100 times more effective as an antiviral agent,' said Boger.
This story was supplied by MarketWatch. For further information see www.marketwatch.com
# posted by Joyfulstill @ 10:15 PM 
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Of course they are, tx monthly runs a couple of thousand a month. It probably costs 10cents to make.
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