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news.Roche has reported that the company's investigational therapy for chronic hepatitis C virus infection, R1626, has shown a significant end-of-treatment response rate when given in combination with Pegasys and Copegus.
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R1626 also shows a high barrier to the development of resistance. After four weeks of treatment with this triple combination, followed by 44 weeks of Pegasys and Copegus, levels of hepatitis C virus (HCV) were undetectable in 84% of patients infected with genotype 1 virus. This was higher than patients treated with Pegasys and Copegus alone for the entire 48-week treatment period (65%).
David Nelson, director of Hepatology and Liver Transplantation at the University of Florida, said: “These results demonstrate that R1626 holds significant promise to potentially increase the number of hepatitis C patients who can be successfully treated. Since most patients responded very early in treatment with R1626, we expect sustained virological response rates that improve significantly on those achieved with the current standard of care.”