BURLINGTON, Mass., Sept. 27 /PRNewswire/ — Decision Resources,
one of the world’s leading research and advisory firms for
pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that the launch of
novel therapies for the treatment of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV),
including Vertex/Johnson & Johnson/Mitsubishi Tanabe’s
telaprevir and Merck’s boceprevir, will precipitate several changes
in HCV treatment. According to Patient Flow in Hepatitis C
Virus, surveyed physicians plan to initiate treatment in at
least half of their “warehoused” HCV1 patients one year after novel
therapies become available. Patient “warehousing” is a term that
has been coined to characterize the phenomenon of HCV patients
opting out of treatment with current standard of care in
anticipation of new therapies; psychiatric events, adverse events
and liver health are top reasons keeping patients away from current
therapies.
The report also finds that time from initial diagnosis to
treatment initiation will decrease once novel HCV therapies are
available. On average, surveyed physicians stated they wait 17
months to initiate treatment in HCV1 treatment-naive patients; this
time will decrease to 7 months once novel treatment options are
available.
“The arrival of telaprevir and boceprevir will alter more than
the drug-treatment rate and treatment initiation timing in HCV,”
said Alexandra Makarova, M.D., Ph.D. “Physicians indicate they
would increase the capacity of their HCV practice to accommodate
the additional patients expected once novel therapies are
available.”
About Patient Flow in Hepatitis C VirusPatient Flow in
Hepatitis C Virus is a 15-year, annualized patient forecast for
each of the G7 countries that estimates the total size of the
declining prevalent HCV population and segments it by viremic
status, HCV genotype and line of therapy. It includes two
components: an Excel workbook containing quantitative analysis,
including patient forecast and modifiable assu
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