Gilead Sciences (Nasdaq:GILD) today announced topline results from two Phase 3 studies, FISSION and NEUTRINO, evaluating a 12-week course of the once-daily nucleotide sofosbuvir in combination with ribavirin (FISSION) and in combination with ribavirin and pegylated interferon (NEUTRINO) among treatment-naïve patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection.
In the FISSION study, patients with genotype 2 or 3 HCV infection were randomized to receive either a 12-week course of sofosbuvir plus ribavirin (RBV) or standard of care with 24 weeks of pegylated interferon alfa-2a (peg-IFN) plus RBV. The study met its primary efficacy endpoint of non-inferiority of sofosbuvir plus RBV to peg-IFN plus RBV, with 67 percent (170/253) of patients achieving a sustained virologic response (SVR) in the sofosbuvir plus RBV treatment group versus 67 percent (162/243) in the peg-IFN plus RBV treatment group (95 percent CI for the difference: -7.5 to +8.0 percent for sofosbuvir plus RBV versus peg-IFN plus RBV; predefined criterion for non-inferiority was a lower bound of a two sided 95 percent CI of -15 percent). All common adverse events (≥10 percent in any group) occurred more frequently in subjects receiving peg-IFN and RBV as compared to sofosbuvir and RBV. The most common adverse events in the sofosbuvir plus RBV arm occurring in ≥10 percent of the patients were fatigue, headache, nausea, insomnia and dizziness.
In the NEUTRINO study, patients with genotype 1, 4, 5 or 6 HCV infection were treated with a 12-week course of sofosbuvir, RBV and peg-IFN. This study met its primary efficacy endpoint of superiority compared to a predefined historic control SVR rate of 60 percent with 90 percent (295/327) of patients achieving SVR12 after completing therapy (P<0.001).
In the NEUTRINO study the most common adverse events that occurred in ≥20 percent of patients were fatigue, headache, nausea, insomnia and anemia.
"These data support the favorable clinical profile of sofosbuvir as the backbone of a potent, safe and well-tolerated treatment regimen that is effective across a broad range of HCV patient genotypes," said Norbert Bischofberger, PhD, Executive Vice President of Research and Development and Chief Scientific Officer, Gilead Sciences. "The sofosbuvir regimens in these trials allowed us to shorten the duration of effective hepatitis C therapy to just 12 weeks for treatment-naïve patients with genotypes 1 through 6."
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