The drug, VX-135, will be tested with J&J’s simeprevir and Glaxo’s GSK2336805 in 12-week trials to determine whether the combinations help rid patients of the virus, Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Vertex said in two statements today. The companies will split development costs with Vertex.
Vertex Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Leiden said in an interview last month that the company had been drawing collaborator interest for VX-135, one of the last viable experimental therapies in a class called nucleotides thought to be an important part of combination therapy to treat hepatitis C. The disease affects an estimated 170 million people worldwide, and drugmakers have been rushing to bring next-generation therapies to market.
“This collaboration is an important step forward in our commitment to develop new all-oral treatment regimens for people with hepatitis C,” Robert Kauffman, Vertex’s chief medical officer, said in a statement about the J&J collaboration today. He made a similar comment about the Glaxo plans.
The drug combinations will be tested in the second of three stages of clinical trials generally required for regulatory approval.
Vertex declined 2.6 percent to $48.28 yesterday, and has increased 45 percent this year. The shares of New Brunswick, New Jersey-based J&J, which has a partnership with Vertex already on Incivek, dropped less than 1 percent yesterday to $70.82. Glaxo shares rose 0.5 percent to 1,393.50 pence at 11:58 a.m. in London.
To contact the reporter on this story: Meg Tirrell in New York at mtirrell@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net
Source: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-11-01/vertex-joins-glaxo-j-and-j-in-testing-hepatitis-c-combos
Vertex announces hepatitis C collaborations with GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen
By Chris Reidy, Globe Staff
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced collaborations with two other drug companies, GlaxoSmithKline and Janssen Pharmaceuticals, to work on various potential treatments for hepatitis C, a serious liver disease that is spread through direct contact with the blood of infected people.
Cambridge-based Vertex already has a hepatitis C drug on the market called Incivek, a pill that is currently part of a treatment regimen that also includes an injectable drug called Interferon.
Meanwhile, Vertex is working on another hepatitis C pill now designated as VX-135. The hope is that drug candidate VX-135 can become part of a hepatitis C treatment regimen that eliminates the need for injectable drugs such as Interferon.
The separate studies with the British drug company GlaxoSmithKline and Janssen call for VX-135 to be tested in combinations with pills made by those companies. Those studies are scheduled to start early next year. Janssen is a division of Johnson & Johnson.
Vertex currently has two drugs on the market — Incivek and Kalydeco, a treatment for cystic fibrosis.
Vertex has about 2,100 employees worldwide, including nearly 1,500 in Cambridge. The company is scheduled to begin relocating its headquarters to the South Boston waterfront in early 2014.
Vertex Joins Glaxo, New Hope for New Solution?
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