New drug from vertex can treat hard-to-cure hepatitis C patients

Telaprevir, the company’s experimental drug, helped 65 percent of hepatitis C patients whose prior therapies were unsuccessful.

This was the last of 3 major phases of telaprevir conducted by Vertex and partner Johnson & Johnson(JNJ), previous ones released in May and August this year.

“This last phase III study, dubbed "Realize," was set up to confirm previous, earlier findings that showed telaprevir could cure a significant number of hepatitis C patients without treatment options because they failed to respond to the current standard of care”, the officials revealed.

Details of the trial
The trial looked at 662 hepatitis C patients whose bodies seemed to be resistant to all other treatments.

The participants were divided in 3 groups. The ones who responded to treatment but then relapsed during the follow-up period were put in the first group, patients who partially responded to treatment but whose virus never completely disappeared consisted the second group, while patients who never responded well to treatment at all were a part of the third group.

The total treatment period was extended to 48 weeks from the regular 24 weeks as these patients have a form of the hepatitis C virus that is more stubborn or harder to treat.

Results of the trial
65 percent of patients treated with telaprevir plus the standard of care were cured, or sustained viral response compared to 17 percent of patients in the control group who were re-treated with just the standard of care, the trial claimed.

Dividing the results into the different groups, 86 percent of re-lapsers were cured after telaprevir treatment compared to 24 percent in the control arm.

Among the second group, the cure rate for the telaprevir-treated patients was 57 percent compared to 15 percent for the control arm.

Finally, in the last group which consisted of the most difficult to treat patients, telaprevir achieved a 31 percent cure rate compared to 5 percent for the control arm.

Results across all three patients types were statistically significant in favor of telaprevir over standard of care, officials report.

The news helped Vertex share move almost 3 percent higher to $36 in Tuesday's after-hours trading session. In advance of the data, Vertex fell almost 3 percent to $35.01.