BioCentury
ARTICLE | Product Development

Selling short in HCV

More HCV data: Shorter treatment with Vertex's telaprevir vs. Merck's boceprevir

November 15, 2010 8:00 AM UTC

With HCV compounds telaprevir and boceprevir now in the homestretch, much of the focus at the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases meeting was on new details from previously reported Phase III trials. Shorter treatment duration and new subgroup analyses further solidified the case for telaprevir from Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., while Merck & Co. Inc. is hoping a different lead-in regimen for boceprevir will offer doctors more flexibility, particularly with patients who have failed standard therapy.

Vertex and Merck both plan to submit NDAs by year end, and physicians told BioCentury they want the choice of both of the first-generation HCV protease inhibitors...