Gilead to combine GS-7977 and GS-5855 into a single pill...

Posted 7/27/12 on Bloomberg.com. Gilead doing exactly what they do best, and that is co-formulation. Now it's clear why they avoided a partnership with BMS in spite of a 100% SVR rate - not only do they have their own nuc and NS5A inhibitor, they want to make them one pill. Brilliant. Both the investment and drug development worlds will be watching this particular trial very closely I suspect.

Gilead’s Single Pill Hepatitis C Study Targets 2014 Approval

Bloomberg, By Michelle Fay Cortez and Ryan Flinn on July 27, 2012

Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD) (GILD) said it plans to start a combination study of two drugs in a single pill to treat hepatitis C by the end of the year, putting it on track to request U.S. regulatory approval for the medicine in 2014.

Gilead, which spent $10.8 billion to acquire one of the medicines, GS-7977, plans to combine it with another, GS-5855, in a trial of 800 patients starting in the fourth-quarter, said Norbert Bischofberger, chief medical officer of the Foster City, California-based company, in a conference call yesterday. If the combination is effective, the company could apply for regulatory approval in the middle of 2014, Bischofberger said.

Gilead is among several drugmakers racing to develop new hepatitis C treatments that act more quickly with fewer side effects than the current standard of care. The goal is to provide doctors and patients with simpler, more effective treatments, Bischofberger said.

The company aims for a therapy that "will clearly be a one pill, once daily, maybe a 12 week course," for patients with all different types of hepatitis C, Bischofberger said. "That's our goal. We are very close."

Conventional therapy combines ribavirin with interferon, an injected immune-boosting protein that can cause flu-like side effects, for as long as 48 weeks.

Gilead is competing with Abbott Laboratories, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co. and Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (VRTX) (VRTX) to develop a new generation of hepatitis C treatments. Rising deaths among baby boomers from hepatitis C prompted U.S. health officials to declare in May that the entire age group is at risk and should be tested for the disease.