Expert comment: New hepatitis C treatment will emerge that could spell the end for the silent epidemic

At this year’s Liver Meeting, all pharmaceutical companies involved in the treatment of Hepatitis C will reveal the findings of the latest trials for their next generation drug regimens.

The global American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases meeting of leading hepatologists and hepatology health professionals will take place in San Francisco November 13 and 17. Global analyst firm Datamonitor says it expects that this conference will unveil Gilead Sciences (Nasdaq: GILD) latest drug regimen as the gold standard in the disease’s treatment.

Michael Haydock, senior analyst at Datamonitor, comments: “While AbbVie and Merck’s offerings are very strong in many respects, Gilead’s successor regimen of sofosbuvir/velpatasvir, with or without GS-9857, should prove to be the clear winner. Sofosbuvir/velpatasvir has shown a 95%-100% cure rate across all genotypes from a 12 week course (and Gilead is investigating as to whether this could be shortened to as little as 8 weeks when GS-9857 is added). The regimen also has relatively few side effects and patients can continue working while on the course. As a result, rival regimens may only be able to compete on price.”