Vertex to begin expanded trial for hepatitis drug

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http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2008/08/18/daily10.html

Vertex to begin expanded trial for hepatitis drug

Boston Business Journal - by Mark Hollmer

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. will begin a wide-scale late stage human clinical

trial for its hepatitis C treatment.

The Cambridge, Mass. company (Nasdaq: VRTX) said on Tuesday that it had agreed

with regulatory authorities in the U.S. and European Union to begin the trial

for telaprevir in combination with another treatment. Scientists for this trial

will focus on patients for whom a previous treatment hasn’t worked.

More than 650 patients will be enrolled at over 100 facilities in the U.S. and

the European Union, and enrollment should be complete by the fiscal 2009 first

quarter.

Getting a hepatitis C treatment to market would be an enormous achievement.

About 6 million patients in the U.S. and European Union alone suffer from

hepatitis C, Vertex estimates.