Shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. fell Monday after Schering-Plough Corp. reported positive data from a trial of a hepatitis C drug, showing it could be a strong competitor to Vertex's candidate telaprevir.

In the mid-stage trial, patients were given a combination of Schering-Plough's drug candidate boceprevir and two standard drugs for either 24 weeks or 44 weeks. Some patients were also given the two standard drugs for four weeks as a "lead-in" before beginning treatment with boceprevir.

Twelve weeks after treatment ended, 74 percent of those lead-in patients had undetectable levels of the virus. That measurement, called sustained virologic response or SVR, is the main goal of the trial and a key measurement of the strength of a hepatitis C treatment.

SVR for patients who did not receive the lead-in was 66 percent. In a measurement taken 24 weeks after treatment stopped, patients who were given the boceprevir cocktail for 28 weeks had an SVR of 56 percent if they received the lead-in, and 55 percent if they did not.

SVR for patients who took only the two standard drugs for 48 weeks was 38 percent.

Analysts have generally been more optimistic about Vertex's candidate telaprevir, which is slightly further along in development and has created stronger responses from patients, particularly in the first few weeks of treatment. But Leerink Swann analyst Howard Liang said the study indicates "boceprevir is more competitive than early data had suggested."

"This is probably a surprise to Wall Street because the early data have been better for telaprevir," he said in a telephone interview. "I think it's probably too early to conclude one is better than the other."

Vertex shares dropped $3.77, or 11.5 percent, to $28.93 in afternoon trading. Schering-Plough shares rose 59 cents, or 2.9 percent, to $21.

Liang thinks both drugs will find a niche as treatments for new hepatitis C patients, but he said the larger market for telaprevir will be in patients who have not responded to previous treatments.

Hepatitis C is a liver disease estimated to affect 170 million people worldwide. Other companies developing new treatments include Johnson & Johnson (with Medivir AB), Merck & Co., InterMune Inc. (with Roche Holding AG), Idenix Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH.

 http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D92BJV700.htm

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