Intermune's ITMN-191 performance may exceed Telaprevir's

[mremeet]

Saw this on a stock analyst website. Intermune's CEO is bragging about their HCV protease inhibitor ITMN-191 being much more potent in vitro than VX950/Telaprevir. Still a long way off from proving it in human studies, but looks like things are starting to move that way soon. Keep an eye on this one. Excerpt below:

http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/newsanalysis/biotech/10378449_3.html

"InterMune's CEO Dan Welch sounded remarkably confident Tuesday when discussing the prospects for his company's hepatitis C drug candidate ITMN-191. On Tuesday, InterMune announced that European regulators have given the OK for the start of a phase Ib study of ITMN-191.

This will be the first clinical trial of the drug in patients with hepatitis C, and therefore, the first opportunity for investors to gauge the drug's real potential in the disease. ITMN-191 has looked impressively potent in test tubes, but efficacy in real people is another matter entirely.

The ITMN-191 program has been a bit slow to get to this point where the drug is ready for testing in hepatitis C patients. The reasons for this aren't entirely clear. There have been rumors of toxicity issues with the drug, which InterMune denies (although they refuse to discuss any specific toxicities associated with ITMN-191 when given to healthy volunteers in a previous phase Ia study).

During his Weisel remarks Tuesday, Welch took some jabs at Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr - Rating) and its leading hepatitis C drug candidate telaprevir. Several times, Welch suggested that telaprevir had toxicity and tolerability issues that could make it an inferior drug to ITMN-191. On the efficacy front, Welch repeated once again the company's well-worn take-home message for investors that ITMN-191 is hugely more potent than telaprevir in preclinical models.

Welch could be right. Maybe ITMN-191 is going to be a better drug than Vertex's telaprevir. But it might be nice for Welch to show us some actual human data to back up his claims. At this point, we've seen nothing on ITMN-191. By comparison, telaprevir is looking pretty darn good, not to mention the fact that the drug is way, way ahead of ITMN-191 in the race to be the first new hepatitis C drug approved in years.

I guess this makes me an InterMune skeptic until I see something tangible on ITMN-191 that suggests I should think otherwise."

[susan400]

If they think that they can get something out there that works better than VX, then more power to them, I hope that they succeed.  I'm all for a bunch of new drugs being available to those who need them.  I'm not holding my breath for the VX-950 because I've already non-responded to it and had too much of an issue with the rash.  But, for those who may be helped by it, I think it's a plus.  

Susan

[glucklich]

great possibilities. GIven how the best minds in research lack definitive understandings of the mechanisms of our good buddy dragon, I will hope new is better and that Vx helps millions.