Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD), which paid $10.8 billion to buy Pharmasset Inc. (VRUS) for its hepatitis C pill, said the number of patients who relapsed after they stopped taking the treatment has increased. Eight of nine patients with the most-common form of the virus in the U.S. had a relapse within four weeks after stopping use of the medicine, GS-7977, and ribavirin, according to research presented today at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Seattle. The patients in the study weren’t helped by prior therapies.
