AbbVie Presents Preliminary Phase 3b Data With VIEKIRAX + EXVIERA

(RTTNews) - AbbVie (ABBV) announced new, preliminary safety and efficacy data from the first cohort of its ongoing, Phase 3b RUBY-I study. RUBY-I is evaluating VIEKIRAX (ombitasvir/paritaprevir/ritonavir tablets) + EXVIERA (dasabuvir tablets) with or without ribavirin (RBV) in treatment-naïve, non-cirrhotic, genotype 1 (GT1) chronic hepatitis C patients with severe renal impairment (stage 4 or 5), including those on hemodialysis.

The primary endpoint of the study is the percentage of patients achieving sustained virologic response at 12 weeks post-treatment (SVR12). Patients who reached post-treatment week four to date (n=10 of 20 enrolled) achieved 100 percent SVR4 (n=10/10). RUBY-I was presented as a late-breaker today at The International Liver Congress (ILC) 2015, the 50th annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) in Vienna, Austria.

Additionally, RUBY-I data showed no virologic failures to date.1 Preliminary safety analyses reported that patients experienced mainly mild or moderate adverse events when receiving VIEKIRAX + EXVIERA with or without RBV, most commonly (>20 percent) anemia, fatigue, diarrhea, nausea, dizziness and headache. To date, eight of 13 genotype 1a (GT1a) patients had a RBV dose interruption.

Additional Phase 3b studies from AbbVie presented at ILC 2015 included MALACHITE-I and MALACHITE-II data, and the TOPAZ-I and TOPAZ-II study design. The MALACHITE studies evaluate adult patients with GT1 chronic HCV infection without cirrhosis receiving VIEKIRAX + EXVIERA with or without RBV compared to treatment with telaprevir with pegylated-interferon and RBV, which remains the standard of care in many regions of the world. The TOPAZ studies will evaluate the effect of SVR12 on long-term outcomes, five years following treatment with VIEKIRAX + EXVIERA with or without RBV in adults with GT1 chronic HCV infection.

VIEKIRAX + EXVIERA is approved in the European Union for the treatment of genotype 1 (GT1) chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, including patients with compensated cirrhosis. VIEKIRAX is approved in the European Union for the treatment of genotype 4 (GT4) chronic HCV infection.

VIEKIRAX consists of the fixed-dose combination of paritaprevir 150mg (NS3/4A protease inhibitor) and ritonavir 100mg with ombitasvir 25mg (NS5A inhibitor), dosed once daily, and EXVIERA consists of dasabuvir 250mg (non-nucleoside NS5B polymerase inhibitor) dosed twice daily taken with or without ribavirin (RBV), dosed twice daily based on patient type. VIEKIRAX + EXVIERA is taken for 12 weeks with or without RBV, except in GT1a and GT4 patients with compensated cirrhosis, who should take it for 24 weeks with RBV.

Paritaprevir was discovered during the ongoing collaboration between AbbVie and Enanta Pharmaceuticals (ENTA) for hepatitis C protease inhibitors and regimens that include protease inhibitors. Paritaprevir has been developed by AbbVie for use in combination with AbbVie's other investigational medicines for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C.