Bristol-Myers links with Tibotec for Ph II combination study in hepatitis C patients

US drug major Bristol-Myers Squibb  (NYSE: BMY) has entered into a clinical collaboration agreement with Tibotec Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), to evaluate the utility of daclatasvir (BMS-790052), B-MS’ investigational NS5A replication complex inhibitor, in combination with Tibotec’s investigational NS3 protease inhibitor, TMC435, for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV), a market sector forecast to reach a value of $7.5 billion by 2014.

Under the accord, financial details of which were not disclosed, the companies will evaluate the potential to achieve sustained viral response 12 and 24 weeks post treatment in patients with HCV genotype 1 in a study with three treatment regimens: an oral, once-daily treatment regimen of daclatasvir and TMC435 with pegylated-interferon alpha plus ribavirin; an oral, once-daily treatment regimen of daclatasvir and TMC435 with ribavirin and an oral, once-daily treatment regimen of daclatasvir and TMC435 alone. The study is planned to start in the first half of 2012.

Tibotec compound fast-tracked and in Ph III trials