52% of telaprevir patients achieve SVR12

New clinical data from four Phase II studies of the investigational hepatitis C protease inhibitor telaprevir (VX-950) support a broad profile for the agent in the treatment of chronic genotype 1 hepatitis C virus infection, according to its developers, USA-based Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Irish drugmaker Tibotec.

Presented at the 59th annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, in San Francisco, findings from the PROVE 3 trial show a 52% 12-week sustained virologic response in HCV treatment-failure patients, with a 24-week therapy duration.

"The data being presented at AASLD support the potential for telaprevir to have a broad role in genotype-1 HCV patients, including those naive to treatment and those who have previously failed one or more courses of pegylated interferon and ribavirin," said Freda Lewis-Hall, executive vice president, medicines development, at Vertex. "In addition to the positive data seen in treatment-failure patients, in the final results from PROVE 2 we see the potential for a significant proportion of treatment-naive genotype 1 HCV patients to achieve SVR with a 24-week telaprevir-based regimen," she added.