Vertex study shows good hepatitis results

Biotech drug developer Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. said today that its treatment for hepatitis C reduced the virus to undetectable levels in a vast majority of patients in early-stage clinical trials.

In one trial, investigators found that telaprevir, or VX-950, suppressed both wild-type and resistant variant of hepatitis C virus when combined with pegylated interferon.

Investigators also found that after 24 weeks of treatment in two early-stage clinical trials, 24 out of 26 patients did not have detectable levels of the virus, and that levels remained undetectable in some patients even after therapy was discontinued. (AP)