S-P's boceprevir doubles SVR24 in Ph II study

US drug major Schering-Plough says that data from a planned interim analysis of a Phase II study showed that boceprevir, its investigational oral hepatitis C protease inhibitor, in combination with Pegintron (peginterferon alfa-2b) and Rebetol (ribavirin) markedly increased sustained virologic response rates with 28 weeks of therapy and nearly doubled SVR with 48 weeks of therapy compared to current standard of care, peginterferon and ribavirin for treatment.

Results from the HCV SPRINT-1 study in 595 treatment-naive patients with chronic hepatitis C virus genotype-1 were presented at the 59th annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, held in San Francisco.

In a 48-week boceprevir regimen, the SVR rate was 74% at 12 weeks after the end of treatment in patients who received four weeks of Pegintron and Rebetol prior to the addition of boceprevir (800mg TID). In a 28-week boceprevir regimen, the SVR rate was 56% at 24 weeks after the end of treatment (SVR 24) in subjects who received the P/R lead-in. These results compared to a 38% SVR rate for patients in the control group receiving 48-weeks of Pegintron and Rebetol alone.