MILAN, Italy--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (Nasdaq: VRTX) today announced data from two large Phase 2b clinical trials evaluating the investigational hepatitis C virus (HCV) protease inhibitor telaprevir (VX-950), dosed in combination with pegylated interferon (peg-IFN) and ribavirin (RBV) in treatment-naïve, genotype 1-infected HCV patients. Final results from PROVE 1 and further interim analysis from PROVE 2 showed consistently higher SVR rates and antiviral response in the 24-week telaprevir arms -- 61% of patients in PROVE 1 and 68% of patients in PROVE 2 achieving SVR, compared with 41% of patients in the PROVE 1 control arm achieving SVR and 48% of patients in the PROVE 2 control arm having undetectable HCV RNA at 12 weeks post-treatment. These data will be presented at the 43rd Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of the Liver in Milan, Italy from April 23-27, 2008.
