Roche's Pegasys "better at 24, not 16 weeks"

Swiss drug major Roche says that results from a new trial show that 24 weeks of therapy with Pegasys (peginterferon alfa-2a) combined with ribavirin is more effective than a 16-week treatment period for patients infected with hepatitis C genotypes 2 and 3.

The data, which were presented at the 41st annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of the Liver Disease, held in Vienna, Austria, show that eight weeks gave patients a greater chance of being successfully treated for chronic HCV and also lowered the relapse rate after treatment. The firm noted that its ACCELERATE trial is the only randomized, controlled study specifically designed to examine a shorter regimen versus the standard duration.