Researchers will present new data this week suggesting that both wild-type hepatitis C virus and resistant variants were suppressed in patients when pegylated interferon (peginterferon alfa-2a; peg-IFN) was added to telaprevir (VX-950), Vertex's investigational hepatitis C virus (HCV) protease inhibitor, in a Phase 1b clinical study. In addition, clinical investigators will report that 24 of 26 patients who received telaprevir (VX-950) in two early-stage clinical trials had undetectable HCV RNA after receiving follow-on combination therapy with peg-IFN and ribavirin (RBV) through 24 weeks of treatment, a therapeutic regimen following the conclusion of the clinical trials. Clinical investigators will also report that some of these patients have stopped therapy, and that a proportion of them continued to have undetectable HCV RNA after stopping therapy.
The data will be presented while attending the 57th Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) and were released in accordance with media guidelines established by the conference. Telaprevir (VX-950) is an investigational drug candidate being developed as part of a global Phase 2b clinical development program by Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated .
Combination of Telaprevir (VX-950) and Peg-IFN Suppressed Both Wild-type Virus and Resistance Variants in 14-day Clinical Study.
REMEMBER from a few days ago; Peg-IFN is pegylated interferon beta which is a proimflammatory cytokine the body makes in response to viral infections. The peg is an added structure that makes the cytokine more stable when injected into the body. It makes patients very ill, with flu like symptoms, fever and malaise.
VX-950 is a small molecule inhibitor of the hepatitis C NS3•4A protease. It was derived through structure-based drug design methodology, evolving from the natural NS5A-NS5B substrate. Inhibition of the polyprotein processing in liver cells as measured by the HCV replicon assay has been demonstrated. Long story short, it keeps the virus from replicating.
VRTX stock is trading very heavily and is up to $39.68 or an increase of 14% as of 12:53PM ET .
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