By Adam Feuerstein 04/19/12 - 10:24 AM EDT
BARCELONA (TheStreet) -- The most effective new therapy for hepatitis C -- two pills that could cure nearly every patient treated -- may never see the light of day because the developers of these new medicines, Bristol-Myers Squibb(BMY_) and Gilead Sciences(GILD_), seem unable to work together.
Apparently, profits are more important than best patient care.
The new Hep C therapy at issue here combines Bristol's daclatasvir with Gilead's GS-7977. Each is a single pill administered once a day. The results from this new therapy are nothing short of spectacular -- an early cure rate of 100% for genotype 1 patients and 91% of genotype 2/3 patients, according to data from a mid-stage study announced Thursday at the European Association for the Study of Liver Disease (EASL) meeting.
A 100% cure rate for genotype 1 patients! Obviously, results can't get better than that.
You'd think there'd be a rush to move the combination regimen of daclatasvir and GS-7977 into a larger, confirmatory phase III trial, but you'd be mistaken. Amazingly, this most promising new treatment for hepatitis C patients may actually be discontinued because Bristol and Gilead can't work together.
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This is incredibly sad and cruel! I am a benefactor of a trial with 7977 before Gilead bought the Pharmasett. To think that other people are SUFFERING from this crazy virus and to not keep doing the work to have it FDA approved is gross negligence at this point.
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