AbbVie's hepatitis C treatment shows promise
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Drugmaker AbbVie Inc said on Friday its experimental fixed-dose combination to treat certain hepatitis C virus patients achieved high sustained viral response (SVR) rates after eight weeks of treatment.
The once-daily fixed-dose combination, glecaprevir/pibrentasvir (G/P), was given to HCV patients without cirrhosis and who were new to treatment in three different studies.
About 97.5 percent of these patients achieved a high SVR rate, which is the most widely used efficacy endpoint in clinical studies of hepatitis C, representing removal of HCV from the body.
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There were no adverse events during the eight-week regimen and patients across all major genotypes of chronic hepatitis C achieved high SVR rates.
"We're on track to submit our next generation, pan-genotypic regimen to regulatory authorities by the end of this year in the U.S. and early 2017 in the European Union and Japan," the company said.
About 130 million-150 million people live with chronic HCV worldwide. The World Health Organization estimates about 700,000 people die each year from liver diseases related to hepatitis C.
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Shares of the North Chicago, Illinois-based company were down 1.84 percent in morning trade.