Germany's IQWiG sees added benefits for Incivo

In an early benefit assessment pursuant to Germany’s Act on the Reform of the Market for Medicinal Products (AMNOG), the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG), has examined whether Incivo (telaprevir) offers an added benefit compared with the present standard therapy.

According to the findings of the assessment, telaprevir offers advantages in various groups of patients with chronic hepatitis C infection of genotype 1. The available studies provide proof, indications or "hints” of an added benefit. However, not only the probability but also the extent of added benefit varies, said the IQWiG.

The European Commission has approved Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) subsidiary Janssen’s Incivo, a direct acting antiviral (DAA) protease inhibitor, for the treatment of genotype-1 chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV), in combination with peginterferon alfa and ribavirin, in adults (The Pharma Letter September 21, 2011). The drug was developed in collaboration with the USA’s Vertex and Japan’s Mitsubishi Tanabe and is approved and marketed under the trade name Incivek in the USA and Canada (TPLs May 24 and August 23).