Interim Phase IIb Data for Merck Sharp & Dohme's VICTRELIS(TM) (boceprevir) in Patients Coinfected with Chronic Hepatitis C and HIV-1 Presented at the Infectious Diseases Society of America 2011 Annual Meeting

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, today announced results from a 24-week interim analysis of an ongoing 48-week Phase IIb clinical study evaluating the investigational use of VICTRELIS™ (boceprevir), the company’s first-in-class, oral hepatitis C virus (HCV) NS3/4A protease inhibitor, in combination with peginterferon alfa and ribavirin for the treatment of chronic HCV genotype 1 infection in adult patients coinfected with HIV-1. All patients in the study were new to treatment for chronic HCV, on an optimized antiretroviral regimen and had stable HIV-1 disease. The interim analysis showed that at week 24 of treatment, 70.5 percent (n=43/61) of patients receiving VICTRELIS in combination with peginterferon alfa-2b and ribavirin had undetectable hepatitis C virus (HCV-RNA) compared to 34.4 percent (n=11/32) of patients receiving peginterferon alfa-2b and ribavirin alone, a treatment difference of 36.1 percent. These interim results are being presented for the first time in a late-breaker oral presentation at the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) 2011 annual meeting in Boston. Final results from the study are expected in 2012.