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Start-Ups Look For Places In Future HCV Combo Regimens

With more than 50 drugs in development for hepatitis C, what comes next after first-generation protease inhibitors and what opportunity might there be for small start-up firms in a space where so many Big Pharma and specialty pharma companies are active? Approvals of direct-acting antiviral therapies are just around the corner in hepatitis C, and smaller companies are looking to provide parts of the puzzle in next-generation drug cocktails that will tackle the growing disease. However, in order for small companies to succeed in this highly competitive space they'll need highly differentiated products. START-UP profiles AiCuris, Avila Therapeutics, Okairos, Viroblock and Zirus.

Following the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease's (AASLD) 2010 meeting in Boston in early November, it was increasingly clear that Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc./Johnson & Johnson's telaprevir and Merck & Co. Inc.'s boceprevir, both experimental protease inhibitors in Phase III, would be changing the treatment paradigm for hepatitis C in the near future. NDAs for both drugs are slated to be filed by the end of 2010 with approval expected sometime in 2011. ( See "In HCV, Protease Race Heats Up with Combo Therapy Looming," IN VIVO , May 2009 Also see "In HCV, Protease Race Heats Up with Combo Therapy Looming " - In Vivo, 1 May, 2009..)

Upon approval, telaprevir and boceprevir will not supplant the current standard of care – a combination of pegylated interferon, which...

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