merck's hcv drug bring's in only $21 million, page-21

Ramp6868,

HCV is usually asymptomatic until the infection is advanced enough to cause significant fibrosis/cirrhosis. BIT225 is targeted toward chronic HCV infection, as the disease is rarely diagnosed in the acute phase, and as such the majority of patients will be in the chronic stage of infection.

Reducing the viral load in these patients will not cause a discernible improvement in symptoms until liver function is improved, a process that cannot occur within the time frame of the trial.

Short of a blood assay to determine viral load, liver function tests will provide the first evidence of improvement, and this requires a blood assay.

The outcome of the trial cannot be leaked as it would require analysis of the sealed blood assays that will not be opened until the trial is completed and the independent analysis is ready to be conducted.

There is no "feeling" that the drug works as there simply hasn't been enough time for hepatic regeneration, nor have the viral load data been compiled or analysed.

This is not to say the drug necessarily improves the efficacy of the polydrug combo, but to assume the results should have leaked is plain and simply wrong.