If the combination of Sovaldi and
Achillion's ACH-3102 continues to show this level of effectiveness,
the treatment could eventually rival offerings from Gilead and
AbbVie Inc to fight the liver-destroying virus.
Gilead's new-generation hepatitis C treatment, Harvoni, which
combines Sovaldi with the company's own NS5A inhibitor, achieves
this response after eight weeks of therapy. Sales of Harvoni totaled
$2.11 billion in the quarter ended Dec. 31.
AbbVie's regimen, Viekira Pak, which won U.S. approval in December,
takes 12 weeks to achieve a cure.
Shares of Achillion, one of the few companies developing hepatitis C
therapies independently, rose about 10 percent in premarket trading
on Monday.
The main goal of Achillion's ongoing mid-stage study is to achieve a
sustained virological response 12 weeks after therapy, which would
constitute a cure.
The study is testing a 50 milligram (mg) dose of Achillion's NS5A
inhibitor in combination with 400 mg of Gilead's sofosbuvir in
previously untreated genotype 1 hepatitis C patients.
The market for hepatitis C drugs has developed at a lightening pace
in recent years, with several companies working on producing newer
drugs to cure the disease, which affects about 150 million globally.
Achillion's data represents the shortest duration and highest
response achieved to date with any two-drug, direct-acting antiviral
regimen for hep C, Chief Executive Milind Deshpande said in a
statement.
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