Wyeth and ViroPharma halt hepatitis drug development
18 April 2008 00:00 in Pharmaceutical Company Product News
Safety issues have stopped the development of a hepatitis treatment known as HCV-796, Wyeth and ViroPharma have announced.
HCV-796 was in an ongoing phase II trial involving patients with hepatitis C but the trial was stopped in August when it was found eight per cent of patients were displaying higher levels of liver enzymes, against one per cent without the use of the drug.
ViroPharma opted to discontinue the development of the drug due to the risk associated with potential hepatotoxicity, it stated.
Neither company said it had plans to collaborate of future developments of other hepatitis C drugs.
ViroPharma president and chief executive Vincent Milano said: "The risk associated with potential hepatotoxicity ultimately posed too high of a hurdle to merit further development."
The study examined HCV-796 administered in combination with peginterferon alfa 2B (Peg-Intron) plus concomitant Rebetol versus Peg-Intron and Rebetol in Hepatitis C Virus genotype 1-infected subjects, some of who had not had positive outcomes in previous treatments.
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