AbbVie's HCV Drug Mavyret Succeeds In Label Expansion Study

AbbVie, Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) announced that its successful hepatitis C virus (HCV) medicine, Mavyret demonstrated high virologic cure rates in a study evaluating the 8-week, pan-genotypic, ribavirin-free, once-daily HCV treatment for an expanded patient population.

The phase IIIb EXPEDITION-8 study is evaluating Mavyret in treatment naïve HCV patients with compensated cirrhosis across all major genotypes (GT1-6). Mavyret is presently marketed in the United States for treatment-naïve patients without cirrhosis. For patients with compensated cirrhosis, Mavyret is approved as a 12-week pan-genotypic treatment option.

New data from cohort 1 of the study showed that on eight weeks of treatment with Mavyret, 100% of genotype 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6 treatment-naïve HCV patients with compensated cirrhosis achieved SVR12 per protocol analysis. Cohort two of the study, evaluating treatment-naïve genotype 3 patients without cirrhosis, is ongoing.

The data were presented at the Liver Meeting organized by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) in San Francisco, CA.

Mavyret has seen a highly successful launch because of the shorter duration treatment benefit it offers.

Mavyret, a combination of glecaprevir, a potent protease inhibitor and pibrentasvir, a NS5A inhibitor, gained approval in the United States, EU, Canada and Japan in 2017. Mavyret performed beyond expectations in the first year of launch, recording sales of almost $500 million in 2017. The drug recorded sales of $2.6 billion in the first nine months of 2018, commanding a global market share of 50%.

Mavyret has the potential to rejuvenate growth in the HCV franchise. According to AbbVie, it may be used in up to 95% of HCV patients, depending on the stage of liver disease and prior treatment history.

So far this year, AbbVie’s stock has declined 8.8% against the industry’s increase of 8%.

AbbVie currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Some better-ranked pharma stocks include Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) , Merck (NYSE:MRK) and Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) . All are #2 Ranked (Buy) stocks.

J&J’s earnings estimates have risen 0.2% for 2018 and 0.5% for 2019 over the past 30 days. The stock has gained 3.6% this year so far.

Lilly’s earnings estimates have risen 0.7% for 2018 and 0.2% for 2019 over the past 30 days. The stock has gained 33.1% this year so far.

Merck’s earnings estimates have risen 1.4% for 2018 and 1.1% for 2019 over the past 30 days. The stock has gained 32.6% this year so far.

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