Stellar hepatitis C data puts Gilead farther ahead of pack

Gilead Sciences Inc released impressive late-stage data Wednesday for its once-daily combination pill to treat hepatitis C, advancing its lead in the race to develop new, all-oral treatments for the liver disease, and pushed up its timeline for seeking U.S. approval. Gilead unveiled initial results from three Phase III studies that demonstrated cure rates well in excess of 90 percent with as little as 8 weeks of treatment for some patients, and its share price rose 5 percent. The findings were achieved without the use of either injectable interferon, which causes miserable flu-like symptoms, or ribavirin, an antiviral pill that carries its own troublesome side effects. “The results certainly raise the bar and dim the outlook for competitors such as AbbVie, Bristol-Myers and Boehringer Ingelheim,” Sanford Bernstein analyst Geoffrey Porges said of rival all-oral programs in development that require more drugs and more pills than Gilead’s to achieve similarly high cure rates.