Merck’s Experimental Hepatitis C Drug Beats Victrelis
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Merck & Co. said an experimental drug against hepatitis C was more effective than its Victrelis pill in a patient study.
The virus was undetectable in the blood of as many as 92 percent of patients six months after they stopped the 12-week course of treatment with the drug, known as MK-5172, compared with 54 percent of those who received Victrelis, Whitehouse Station, New Jersey-based Merck said in a statement today. The trial included 332 people with the most common form of hepatitis C in the U.S., and all received standard therapy ribavirin in addition to either MK-5172 or Victrelis.