LONDON (Reuters) - Swiss healthcare group Roche Holding AG said on Tuesday a new clinical study showed its Pegasys hepatitis C drug can be tailored to suit the genetic profile of individual patients.
Patients with easier-to-treat genotypes 2 and 3 are able to reduce the length of treatment by a half-- from one year to six months--according to findings published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. They can also take a lower dose of ribavirin, which is given in combination with Pegasys, and still achieve a sustained virological response of 84 percent.
Industry analysts said the ability to customise treatment would be attractive to patients and should help Roche in its battle for market share against Schering-Plough Corp’s rival interferon treatment PegIntron.
Since its launch at the end of 2002, Pegasys has gained more half of the market for U.S. prescriptions of hepatitis C drugs.
Sales of the product combined with Copegus, Roche’s brand of ribavirin, reached 942 million Swiss francs ($745.8 million) in 2003.
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