Saturday, Roche, InterMune, Inc. (ITMN) and Pharmasset (VRUS) announced that interferon-free direct acting antiviral combination therapy of R7227 and R7128 reduced viral load significantly in chronically infected hepatitis C patients. Additionally, they said there were no serious adverse events reported during the 14 days of dosing.
Hepatitis C is an inflammation of the liver caused by the hepatitis C virus.
The results from the INFORM-1 study conducted in centers in New Zealand and Australia demonstrated for the first time that the combination of an oral protease inhibitor, R7227 and an oral nucleoside polymerase inhibitor, R7128 resulted in significant hepatitis C viral load reduction in patients with hepatitis C.
"These are exciting times in our fight against hepatitis C, and the investigation of the innovative oral treatment regimen in INFORM-1, if validated in further study, may radically change future treatment strategies in our patients with chronic HCV infection," said Edward Gane, director, Auckland Clinical Studies Limited.
Roche is developing R7227 with InterMune and R7128 with Pharmasset.
The companies are now exploring twice-daily dosing of R7227 and higher total daily doses, 600 mg twice-daily and 900 mg twice-daily, than those explored in the first patient cohorts of INFORM-1.
ITMN closed Friday's regular trading at $14.00, down $0.67 or 4.57%, on a volume of bout 791 thousand shares.
VRUS closed on Friday at $9.34, up $0.64 or 7.36%, on a volume of about 159 thousand shares.
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