Recommendations heat up the hepatitis C market

Hepatitis C decisions

The hepatitis C market is heating up towards the end of the year. This week Merck & Co announced that the US Food and Drug Administration granted MK-5172/MK-8742 Breakthrough Therapy designation for treatment of chronic hepatitis C virus infection. It has been studied for use in genotype 1 infected patients – the most common type of the disease in the USA. Both Gilead and Johnson & Johnson had their products discussed by the US FDA. Ahead of a meeting on Friday, the FDA said that Gilead’s sofosbuvir was safe and effective when used in combination with other therapies to treat hepatitis C. Sofosbuvir was also given the go-ahead in a compassionate program by the EMA, as it is considered the most advanced and high-profile of treatments free of interferon-free treatments on development. Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen and Medivir’s simeprevir was also recommended for approval by FDA advisors. The market will become increasingly competitive with these new approvals. AbbVie is also expecting to release its hep C drug results in November, and Bristol-Myers Squibb is developing daclatasvir and asunaprevir. It’s no wonder that reports have previously shown that the hep C market will grow from about $3 billion in 2011 to nearly $21 billion in 2018.

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