Merck Inc., success with combination MK 5172+Mk 8742 in Phase II trial for HCV plus HIV

Merck has announced interim results from the ongoing C-WORTHy study, a multi-arm Phase II clinical trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of an all-oral, once-daily regimen combining MK-5172, an investigational hepatitis C virus (HCV) NS3/4A protease inhibitor, and MK-8742, an investigational HCV NS5A replication complex inhibitor, among patients with chronic HCV Genotype 1 infection (GT1).

Interim analysis of hard-to-cure patients administered MK-5172/MK-8742 with and without ribavirin (RBV) for 12 or 18 weeks showed sustained viral response2 (SVR), 4 to 8 weeks after the completion of therapy (SVR4/8): HCV GT1 infected, treatment-na�ve cirrhotic patients, MK-5172/MK-8742 treated - 97 percent (28/29 and 29/30) for 12 and 18 weeks, and MK-5172/MK-8742 plus RBV - 90 percent (28/31) and 97 percent (30/31) for 12 and 18 weeks, respectively.

HCV GT1 (genotype 1) infected prior-null responder patients (with or without cirrhosis), MK-5172/MK-8742 treated - 91 percent (30/33) and 97 percent (29/30) for 12 and 18 weeks, respectively, and MK-5172/MK-8742 plus RBV treated 94 percent (30/32) and 100 percent (32/32) for the 12 and 18 weeks, respectively. Treatment-na�ve, non-cirrhotic patients with HCV/HIV co-infection, MK-5172/MK-8742 treated for 12 weeks - 90 percent (26/29) and MK-5172/MK-8742 plus RBV for 12 weeks 97 percent (28/29).

These data were presented at the 49th Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), also known as The International Liver Congress 2014 in London, UK.