SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (Nasdaq: VRTX) today announced positive interim results from an ongoing Phase 2 study designed to evaluate the safety and tolerability of INCIVEK™ (telaprevir) tablets in combination with pegylated-interferon and ribavirin in people who are co-infected with chronic genotype 1 hepatitis C (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Data showed 74 percent (28/38) of patients who were treated with INCIVEK (in-SEE-veck) combination therapy had undetectable hepatitis C virus (HCV RNA) at Week 24 of treatment compared to 55 percent (12/22) who were treated with pegylated-interferon and ribavirin alone. Changes in CD4 counts were similar between the treatment groups and no HIV viral load breakthroughs were observed in either treatment group during the study. Adverse events that occurred more frequently (=10 percent difference) in the INCIVEK arms compared to placebo were abdominal pain, vomiting, nausea, fever, dizziness, depression and itchiness. No severe rashes were reported through 24 weeks. Interim results from this study are being presented at The Liver Meeting®, the 62nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), November 4-8, 2011 in San Francisco.
