The race toward an interferon free world: The current field of Hepatitis C Virus treatment research, including recent financial deals

NEW YORK, April 26, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Citeline®, an Informa business unit, and the world's leading research authority on pharmaceutical clinical trials has just published an exclusive whitepaper examining the current progress towards a remarkable improvement in the medical treatment for HCV.

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With news of the impending breakthrough in HCV treatment, Citeline reviews the current landscape of clinical trials and drugs in this competitive space as well as the recent history of HCV-related financial deals.  In addition the whitepaper takes a look at the timing of current Phase III trials evaluating all oral regimens to determine how long Gilead may be the sole player in this space.  

Based on information in Citeline's clinical trial intelligence tool, Trialtrove®, 83% of the 200 planned and ongoing Phase I-III clinical trials for pipeline HCV drugs (excluding vaccines) are being conducted by 10 companies; these 10 companies, including Bristol-Myers Squibb, Gilead, Merck and AbbVie, among others, are the focus of this report. Gilead leads in the number of Phase II trials and is conducting over twice as many as the next most active Phase II sponsor, Bristol-Myers Squibb.

According to Doro Shin, MPH, Citeline's Senior Analyst, Infectious & Genitourinary Diseases, "Gilead's lead in direct acting antiviral (DAA) agents for the treatment of HCV could lead to a shorter, oral, and interferon free treatment of the disease, with a dramatic reduction in unwanted side effects. This is truly a new era in HCV treatment. "

Moreover, in reviewing deals over the last five years we discovered between March 2008 and March 2013, there were a total of 18 HCV specific industry partnerships. In both years partnerships comprised of research and discovery and commercialization agreements occurred most frequently; however, three partnerships in 2012 also included licensing agreements. The complete report provides details of these partnership and M&A details including deal values.

"DAAs are clearly dominating in the HCV treatment field as evidenced by the clinical trial landscape and recent financial dealings," remarks Ms. Shin. "With these DAAs, the race is on toward the first interferon free HCV treatment regimen, but the contenders have entered themselves into different events to ensure that they get the gold."

To read this exclusive whitepaper - The race toward an interferon free world: The current field of HCV treatment research, including recent financial deals go to www.citeline.com/resource-center/whitepapers               

About Citeline
Citeline, Inc., an Informa company. Citeline is the world's most comprehensive source of real-time R&D and commercial intelligence featuring an unmatched data collection of global clinical trials, clinical trial investigator profiles, drug development pipelines and commercial intelligence.

Contact for Further Information
Sean McIntosh
Director of Marketing
Citeline Inc.
52 Vanderbilt Ave
7^th Floor
New York, NY 10017
212-520-2741
[email protected] 
www.citeline.com 

SOURCE Citeline