Collaboration With Merck’s Protease Inhibitor The Fourth HCV Tie-Up For Bristol’s Daclatasvir

Merck and Bristol will run a Phase II trial testing daclatasvir, an NS5A replication complex inhibitor, in tandem with MK-5172, Merck’s potentially pan-genotypic protease inhibitor in a non-exclusive partnership in hepatitis C. It’s the second such deal Bristol has signed this month, following an April 5 agreement with Vertex.

Confident that its daclatasvir will prove the best-in-class NS5A replication complex inhibitor for hepatitis C, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. on April 22 signed its second non-exclusive partnership this month to test the compound in tandem with another company’s HCV candidate. The agreement to test Phase III daclatasvir in a Phase II combination trial with Merck & Co. Inc.’s MK-5172 follows on a similar arrangement signed with Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. April 5 to test the NS5A inhibitor with nucleotide analog VX-135.

Along with Phase III protease inhibitor asunaprevir, daclatasvir has been central to Bristol’s HCV strategy since a headline-making clinical failure last year. In August, Bristol shut down a trial investigating...

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