The study examined Vertex’s investigational hepatitis C virus protease inhibitor, telaprevir in combination with pegylated interferon (peg-IFN) with or without ribavirin.
The hepatitis C virus was suppressed in patients when pegylated interferon was added to telaprevir in the phase Ib clinical study.
When the follow on combination therapy of ribavirin was administered subsequent to telaprevir dosing some patients continued to show signs of the hepatitis C virus.
Clinical investigators said that some of these patients have stopped therapy, and that a proportion of them continued to have undetectable hepatitis C after stopping therapy.
When taken without ribavirin, the treatment alleviated both wild-type hepatitis C virus and resistant variants.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals is a global biotechnology company committed to the discovery and development of breakthrough small molecule drugs for serious diseases. Vertex co-discovered the HIV protease inhibitor, Lexiva, with GlaxoSmithKline.