New BMS drug trumps peg-interferon alpha

pharmafile | April 4, 2011 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing BMS, EASL, hepatitis C, pegintron alfa 

Bristol-Myers Squibb has been given a boost by trial results which suggest its compound for hepatitis C, PEG-Interferon lambda, is better than the current standard treatment.

In the phase IIb EMERGE study the new drug achieved encouraging response rates compared with PEG-Interferon alfa in 526 treatment-naive patients chronically affected with hepatitis C.

Roche’s Pegasys and Merck’s PegIntron are both PEG-interferon alfa products and are current standard treatment, but the treatments do not help suppress the virus equally well across all patients.

Data presented at The International Liver Congress in Berlin showed PEG-Interferon lambda plus ribavirin achieved higher rates of rapid virologic response (RVR) in genotypes 1, 2, 3, and 4 than PEG-Interferon alfa and ribavirin.

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It also showed complete early virologic response (cEVR) in patients with genotypes 1 and 4 – who generally have lower response rates to treatment with PEG-Interferon alfa and ribavirin than those with other genotypes.

PEG-Interferon lambda works on a receptor present on fewer cell types than that used by interferon alfa, which means it offers the potential for more targeted delivery of interferon therapy, the company suggests.

EMERGE also showed fewer flu-like and musculoskeletal symptoms and cytopenia, and fewer interferon and ribavirin dose reductions for anaemia in the PEG-Interferon lambda arms up to 12 weeks.

Adverse event rates were similar across both treatment arms in that period, Bristol-Myers Squibb says.

“There is a significant unmet medical need for more therapies that can benefit more hepatitis C patients,” commented Stefan Zeuzem, professor of medicine at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Hospital in Frankfurt.

“The EMERGE study results demonstrate that PEG-Interferon lambda may have the potential to help address this unmet need, and support further studies of this new type of investigational interferon,” he concluded.

Hepatitis C infects the liver and is transmitted through direct contact with blood, affecting an estimated 170 million people worldwide.

A fifth of those chronically infected will develop cirrhosis and a further 20% of that group will progress to liver cancer.

 

Adam Hill

 

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