I haven't heard of these two drugs, not that I remember .
I too hope willing is SVR, the last time he was here he was
treating. Yes, he was a huge asset to this forum. I hope
he will pop in some time and let us know.
Great info Willy, thanks.
As you suggest, TMC435 is an NS3 protease inhibitor similar to Incivek or Victrelis. This brings up again the thorny question of resistance for people like me who have already failed tx with a protease inhibitor. There may be an assortment of drugs in development but resistance is still the same old minefield. Lately this topic seems to have been placed on the back burner because 7977 apparently has such a high barrier to resistance that it is not an issue with 7977 (the jury is still out in my opinion). That is not so for any other drug currently in development, at least to my knowledge.
So for my next tx selection, ideally I will be trying to avoid a protease inhibitor. Also, if I am having an NS5A inhibitor like the BMS drug then I'll want to see a planB that doesn't include one of those either.
Until the cure rate is 100%, nobody can afford to run out of options because they are resistant to all available tx. That is the name of the game we've got here. At least that's how I see it.
dointime
No one cares about Hepatitis C! It's still a drug addict disease as far as the public is concerned!, I'm tired of waiting, I'll take my chances!
You brought up willing, what a huge loss to this place when he left. By far one of the best this site ever had........ I sure hope in his last treatment he made it to SVR...
Thanks for that, it is very encouraging.
Speaking of collaboration......Gilead is still in a few. This one cured everyone they treated This one is Sofosbuvir and Simeprevir (TMC435, a PI, very similar to Incivek or Victrelis, but a cleaner side effect profile)
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-04/gilead-medivir-hepatitis-c-drug-clears-virus-in-patients.html?cmpid=yhoo
========
also a more technical write up is on Natap but you have to go there to find the article. There is a chart, but the bottom line is that in every category which they treated they cured. To be fair, I believe they were all null responders, but with minimal staging damage F-0 to F-2
========
From another natap article;
" Simeprevir is being investigated in combination with PegIFN/RBV in phase III trials and is also being evaluated with Direct-acting Antiviral (DAA) agents in four other phase II interferon-free combinations both with and without ribavirin (RBV)."
===========================
one of the Simeprevir trials is with Vertex's VX-135, a compound very similar to Gilead's sofosbuvir.
http://www.news-medical.net/news/20121102/Janssen-Vertex-to-evaluate-TMC435-and-VX-135-in-Phase-2-HCV-study.aspx
=============================
My point is that there are many many drug treatments being developed which will work. There are actually more drugs in development. This is one reason why the stockholders were so critical of Gilead's high priced buy of 7997 for 11 billion, and it is part of the reason they may have felt they could not afford to share in the profits with Bristol.
Note that many most of these trial will also have trial arms both with and without riba. When they cure everyone such as in the first trial I referenced you can kind of imagine that they probably don't need the riba.
I rather think they will find that adding a third DAA compound might be cleaner, quicker and higher efficacy than using riba.
willy