Merck Sharp and Dohme to present hepatitis C data at upcoming congress

Merck Sharp and Dohme has announced that it will be sharing new hepatitis C drug research data at this year's International Liver Congress.

Taking place in Barcelona from April 13th to 17th, the congress will give the company the opportunity to present data from its broad chronic hepatitis C virus clinical development programmes, with a focus on the drug Zepatier, which was recently approved in the US.

Results from the phase III C-EDGE head-to-head trial will compare Zepatier to a regimen of sofosbuvir with peginterferon alfa and ribavirin, while the phase III C-EDGE IBLD and C-EDGE CO-STAR studies will assess the drug in underserved patients with historically difficult-to-treat conditions.

In addition, data from trials evaluating the candidate therapies MK-3682B and MK-8408 will be presented.

Dr Eliav Barr, vice-president for infectious diseases at Merck Research Laboratories, said: "Merck remains committed to the fight against chronic hepatitis C through our ongoing clinical programmes exploring diverse patient groups and areas of unmet need."

Zepatier is a once-daily, fixed-dose combination tablet for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C genotype 1 or 4 in adults. It was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration back in January.