Merck & Co., Inc. Reports Phase III Study Results Evaluating Anemia Management Strategies Used With VICTRELIS® (boceprevir) Combination Therapy

BARCELONA, Spain--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, announced final results from a Phase III, open-label study designed to compare the impact of two anemia management strategies on sustained virologic response (SVR)1 in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 1 infection treated with VICTRELIS® (boceprevir) in combination with PEGINTRON® (peginterferon alfa-2b) and ribavirin (P/R). The rates of SVR were 71 percent for both groups: those patients whose anemia was managed by ribavirin dose reduction (178/249) and those patients whose anemia was managed by the addition of erythropoietin (EPO) (178/251). The rates of relapse were identical at 10 percent in both groups. These results were presented today for the first time as part of a late breaker poster session [poster #1419] at The International Liver Congress™ / 47th European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) annual meeting.

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