Janssen’s hepatitis drug Incivo approved in Europe

Janssen's new direct-acting antiviral protease inhibitor Incivo has been approved in Europe for the treatment of genotype-1 chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV).

The drug, which was created by Janssen subsidiary Tibotec Virco-Virology, has been ratified for use in combination with peginterferon alfa and ribavirin, after proving its benefits compared to existing therapies.

During clinical trials of Incivo, it was shown that the new drug can deliver significant improvement in cure rates both among treatment-naive patients and those who have failed to benefit from other drugs.

It was also shown to offer the shortest course of treatment of any available product, thus helping patients to avoid the most harmful effects of the serious disease.

Ramon Polo, telaprevir compound development team leader, said: "We are delighted by the European Commission approval of telaprevir and that we can now offer patients a significantly improved treatment option for HCV."

This comes after Janssen introduced Zytiga, an EU-approved once-daily oral therapy for advanced prostate cancer, in the UK earlier this week.