Results also demonstrated a low rate of side effects in treatment naive patients with genotype-1 HCV infection after 24 weeks of treatment.
Earlier in the year the trial design was changed after patients in the higher dose portion of the study had gastrointestinal side effects.
“We have initiated a drug-drug interaction study with ribavirin and, if successful, will possibly evaluate double and triple combination regimens in phase III trials,” said Jean-Pierre Sommadossi, chairman and CEO of Idenix Pharmaceuticals.
At 24 weeks valopicitabine in combination with pegylated interferon achieved marked hepatitis C reductions. Approximately 68% of patients receiving this combination regimen achieved viral clearance at week 24.
“Direct-acting antivirals are likely to be the key components of hepatitis C combination treatments in the future. As the most advanced polymerase inhibitor in clinical development, valopicitabine could have a potential role in these future combination therapies,” said Douglas Dieterich, professor of medicine at the Mt Sinai School of Medicine.