Phase II data for BI 201335 for Hepatitis C

New data presented EASL (European Association for Study of the Liver) in Berlin, highlighted the efficacy of Boehringer Ingelheim's once-daily oral protease inhibitor BI 201335, in both treatment-naive and -experienced patients with chronic genotype-1 hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Genotype-1 HCV is the most challenging genotype of HCV to treat. Results from SILEN-C1 trial show high rates of sustained viral response (SVR, which is considered viral cure) in patients with no previous treatments, who received either 120mg or 240mg BI 201335 once-daily plus the current standard-of-care i.e. pegylated interferon (PegIFN) and ribavirin (RBV). Up to 87% of patients were able to shorten overall treatment duration from 48 to 24 weeks.In the SILEN-C2 trial, in non-responding patients, the 240mg dose of BI 201335 once daily also achieved impressive results in a population that has not responded to standard of care, and achieved such without a lead in therapy.