Doctors welcome hepatitis C drug rivals, Gilead still leads

By Deena Beasley and Ben Hirschler LOS ANGELES/LONDON (Reuters) - Doctors at a key medical conference welcomed the prospect of more new drugs to treat the liver-destroying hepatitis C virus, while agreeing that Gilead Sciences Inc continues to lead the effort. Gilead, under fire from insurers and legislators for the $1,000-a-pill price of its Sovaldi drug, presented pivotal data on Friday at the European Association for the Study of the Liver conference in London, showing a cure rate of 94 percent after eight weeks of treatment with its experimental two-drug pill. Midstage trial results from Merck & Co Inc, also presented at the meeting, showed that 12 weeks of therapy with its two-drug combination cured 98 percent of previously-untreated patients. AbbVie and Bristol-Myers Squibb are also developing new generation all-oral hepatitis C treatments that have demonstrated cure rates in excess of 90 percent.



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