vertex trial or bocepiver

[dee342]

My doctor will enroll me on either trials this winter.  Has anyone done the vertex or boceprier trials?  How were the sides?  Is it doable?  Can I work?  Are their long term sides to worry about?  They are both 6 month trials with no palcebo.  Any info would help make my decision.  Thank you.

[copyman]

you better check again on how long the TX will be. Boceprevir is a 48 week trial WITH placebo but the vertex has a 2nd part of the phase 3 enrolling now with  NO placebo.  I had the same choice and picked the telaprevir study because of NO placebo and 24 & 48 weeks arms. Best of luck

[mkp13]

I'd talk to your doctor about expected cure rates on the two protocols.  When I started tx it sounded like Telaprevir was going to come out ahead, but things change and I haven't checked recently.  I'm in the Vertex trial.  It's the 3-arm trial, so I can't be absolutely sure I'm not in a placebo arm, though I don't *think* so.  The treatment is unpleasant but tolerable, at least for me.  There are good and bad days.  The bad days are fairly rotten and I don't get much done.  But the good days are pretty nice.  For me they tend to come in strings of about three days one way or the other.  I'm still working, though reduced hours.  Other than that I'm able to keep up on parenting a teenager and (mostly) keeping my house in order.  I'm fairly anemic, which is the biggest ongoing problem; it sounds like anemia is pretty common.  Other than that my guts aren't "right" and sleeping is sometimes a problem.  Oh, and I now need 8-9 hours of sleep to feel good, whereas I needed 7 pre-treatment.  I'm finishing week 12 tonight.  If I'm in one of the experimental arms I have 12 weeks to go.

[dointime]

You are lucky to have a choice.  I don't have all your answers but I would say that the Vertex rash should be avoided.  Anecdotally on this forum, people who are the fair skin / blue eye type of person are most prone to the rash.  

Other than that, look at the results and sides for both drugs and pick your poison.

Good luck,
dointime  

[fretboard]

I haven't been thru tx yet, but I am trying to get into a Boceprevir study currently.  Six month trials?  That has me a bit confused, both protease inhibitors are being used in triple therapy trials.  With that said, I think the long term sides will be connected to the SOC as opposed to either Telaprevir or Boceprevir.  Of course these are both new drugs and neither have been approved for public use, so therefore there aren't any long term studies that I am aware of.  I'm thinking you must be a genotype 2 or 3?  Anyways, I was nixed from the telaprevir trials, so I am trying to get into the Boceprevir trials.  I clipped off a little bit of some publications that I was able to locate on pubmed.  The Boceprevir blip is older as they are going into phase 3 trials in a couple to a few weeks, if not already.  If you google pubmed, you can run your own search for more information.  Normally the Telaprevir is used for a shorter amount of days or time if that makes you feel better.  God Bless    

CONCLUSIONS: The combination of telaprevir, peginterferon alfa-2a, and ribavirin was generally well tolerated. Events of pruritus and rash resolved during or after end of telaprevir dosing. All 12 patients achieved an RVR.

Boceprevir is well tolerated in humans and demonstrated antiviral activity in phase I clinical trials. It is currently in phase II trials. This Account details the complexity and challenges encountered in the drug discovery process.