An article from the San Francisco Chronicle (via Bloomberg news) on Merck's high hopes to be the leader in HCV antivirals. While their current HCV protease inhibitor Victrelis is running a distant second in the overall market compared to Vertex Pharmaceutical's Incivek, Merck has gained some traction with Victrelis thanks to a market backlash to Vertex. Some of Incivek's side effects have far outpaced what was seen in their clinical trials, drawing the ire of concerned HCV providers and HCV advocates. Merck's protease inhibitor MK-5172, currently in early clinical trials certainly seems to be potent with a reported 5 log drop in viral load in 3 day monotherapy trials. As for it's potential to be a leading 'anchor drug' in the marketplace, only time will tell.
Merck & Co. aims to be hepatitis C global leader
Robert Langreth, Bloomberg News
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Merck & Co. will make whatever deals are necessary to ensure the company leads the race for future hepatitis C combination therapies, said Roger Pomerantz, the drugmaker's worldwide head of licensing and acquisitions.
"Our goal is to be a leader in hepatitis C, and we will do what it takes to get there," Pomerantz said in an interview at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco. "We would consider small deals to large deals, whatever is necessary to lead in hepatitis."
Victrelis OKd in May
Merck, the second-biggest U.S. drugmaker after Pfizer Inc., won U.S. approval in May for Victrelis, the first hepatitis C drug in almost a decade. The company's pill and Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s Incivek, cleared for sale just 10 days after Victrelis, are easier to use and have fewer side effects than the standard injection treatments for the liver disease. Now the company is in the second stage of testing for a more powerful drug that may work against all strains of the virus, Pomerantz said Monday.
If trials are successful for the drug, called MK-5172, the therapy may become the foundation medicine for future combination pill treatments, he said.
An 'anchor' drug
"What we have seen makes us quite optimistic that the drug could be an anchor," he said.
As many as 170 million people worldwide carry the hepatitis C virus, a blood-borne disease that can lead to liver cirrhosis and cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. The new pills, used in combination with the injectable treatments, have a higher cure rate than previous therapies alone. Incivek and Victrelis are so-called protease inhibitors that work by blocking an enzyme used by the hepatitis C virus to copy itself.
The market for medicines against the disease is about $3 billion worldwide, according to Andrew Berens, a senior health-care analyst with Bloomberg Industries. It may be worth $20 billion by 2020, said Michael Kishbauch, chief executive officer of Achillion Pharmaceuticals Inc., the maker of another experimental treatment, in a November interview.
The race to gain an all-pill regimen for hepatitis C has led to two recent deals. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. said Jan. 7 it would pay about $2.5 billion in cash to buy Inhibitex Inc. Pharmasset agreed to be acquired by Foster City's Gilead Sciences Inc. for $10.8 billion in a deal announced Nov. 21.
Idenix Pharmaceuticals Inc., which also has a hepatitis C drug candidate, and Achillion rose in trading on speculation they may be acquired like Inhibitex and Pharmasset. Idenix and Achillion on Monday also reported successful results of early clinical trials for their experimental drugs.
Achillion is "not eager to go out and plant a 'for sale' sign on our front lawn," Mary Kay Fenton, the company's chief financial officer, said Monday in an interview at the health care conference. Instead, Achillion is concentrating on developing its drug candidates, she said.
Market data provided by Bloomberg News
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