SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, today announced results of an interim analysis from the PROVIDE study, an open-label study examining the efficacy 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 (P/R) in adult patients with chronic HCV genotype 1 who had a null response to prior P/R therapy. These patients are significantly less likely to respond to subsequent treatments. In this interim analysis, 38 percent (16/42) of prior null responders achieved a sustained virologic response (SVR)1 when treated with VICTRELIS in combination with P/R. These results, along with several new data analyses of VICTRELIS and MK-5172, Merck's investigational medicine for the treatment of chronic HCV, will be presented this week at the 62nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) in San Francisco.
