HCV Protease Sales/Vertex ALS2200 Future
Updated Oct 23
Excerpted from financial company William Blair & Co report on healthcare by Y. Katherine Xu, and Ph.D. Filippo Petti
Vertex might stage a comeback in HCV with its potent nuke ALS2200; we believe ALS2200 containing all oral regimens could provide a second wave to the Vertex HCV franchise in 20162017 and beyond. Vertex is currently conducting 12-week studies of their potent nuke compound ALS-2200 in combination with ribavirin or Incivek to build a sizable safety database. Should the 12-week safety be satisfactory, the company might partner ALS-2200 with other classes of direct anti-viral agents (DAAs) from other companies that are in late-stage development and whose safety profiles have been well characterized. Potential partners could include TMC435 from Tibotec/Johnson & Johnson, and daclatasvir from Bristol-Myers Squibb.. This way Vertex can have at least 50% economics in winning HCV combos that will compete with the leaders Gilead and Abbott in the HCV race. We expect 12-week safety data and potential partnership announcement in early 2013. Should such partnerships be established, we may raise our estimates for the HCV franchise in the out years significantly, which will lead to higher valuation for the franchise.....
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Vertex Draws Collaboration Interest For Hepatitis C Combo
By Meg Tirrell - Oct 18, 2012 5:36 PM ET
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (VRTX), maker of the hepatitis C drug Incivek, has received interest from other companies to collaborate on tests of one of its experimental medicines for the liver disease, Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Leiden said.
The company’s VX-135 pill is one of the last in a class of medicines called nucleotides that may be an important part of combination therapy to treat hepatitis C after setbacks among other drugmakers, Leiden said in an interview yesterday at Vertex’s headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
VX-135 Test
Vertex plans to test VX-135 -- also known as ALS-2200 -- in combination with Incivek and another of its experimental medicines, VX-222. Leiden said the company may have data next year from those studies and on combinations with other companies’ drugs. It aims to use that information to choose the one or two best regimens to take into the last stage of tests needed to gain regulatory approval.
Vertex licensed the drug from Alios BioPharma Inc. The companies reported last month that it helped fight the hepatitis C virus in an eight-patient, week-long trial. Vertex discontinued development of another nucleotide licensed from Alios, ALS-2158, for lack of efficacy.
Incivek, known chemically as telaprevir, was approved in May 2011, days after another drug from Merck & Co. (MRK), boceprevir or Victrelis, cleared U.S. regulators. They were the first therapies for hepatitis C in almost a decade to win U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval.
Both pills are given in combination with interferon, which -- in addition to being administered through injection -- is associated with flu-like symptoms that make it hard to tolerate. The new therapies aim to avoid interferon........Continue reading........
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