Differently designed trials so difficult to compare. They don't mention the liver fibrosis scores of the subjects, and after genotype this is in fact the most important predictor of response in HCV (they could have recruited only those without cirrhosis, and made their results look better) - in the 'real world' I suspect that the potency is not greatly different to telaprevir. Still does not overcome the effect of an IL-28B T allele (the CT and TT patients did worse). The 4 times daily dosing is a weakness - I haven't met too many HCV patients who'd reliably take pills 4 times a day, and in the 'real world' this might significantly reduce its efficacy.
BIT225 really needs testing in a 'hard to treat' group of patients with IL-28B allele stratification to see whether it offers advantages over what protease and polymerase inhibitors give.
BIT Price at posting:
12.5¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
