CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (Nasdaq: VRTX) today announced that the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) published data from a Phase 3 study of INCIVEK™ (telaprevir) tablets in people with genotype 1 chronic hepatitis C who were new to treatment. In ILLUMINATE, INCIVEK (in-SEE-veck) was given for the first 12 weeks in combination with pegylated-interferon and ribavirin. Nearly two-thirds of patients responded early to INCIVEK combination treatment (measured by having undetectable hepatitis C virus at weeks 4 and 12 of treatment) and were randomly assigned to receive an additional 12 weeks or 36 weeks of treatment with pegylated-interferon and ribavirin alone. Similarly high rates of sustained viral response (SVR, or viral cure) were achieved by people in both treatment groups. Rash and anemia were the most common side effects reported with INCIVEK in this study and each led to treatment discontinuation of all medicines in about 1 percent of people during the INCIVEK treatment phase. Data from ILLUMINATE are published in the September 15, 2011 issue of NEJM.
