Gilead Sciences, Inc. (GILD) Leading the Charge in Hepatitis C Space with Shorter-Duration Drugs

April 26, 2013

Gilead Sciences, Inc. (GILD) is set to take more market share of the hepatitis C space as the company develops HCV drugs with a duration of just under a year, and the potential to go even lower, providing a significant opportunity for GILD that could bring high rewards to investors, says David Ferreiro, Executive Director and Senior Analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.

“The company that I have the most conviction in within the biotech space is still Gilead (GILD), and they have a lot going on in their pipeline. The investor interests over the past year or more around the hepatitis C space, or HCV space, has been tremendous. And certainly Gilead has been leading that charge since they acquired Pharmasset early last year,” Ferreiro said.

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There is considerable market opportunity in HCV due to a significant unmet medical need, large reservoir of patients and a lack of care standards, Ferreiro says. GILD is set to take more market share as it addresses the need to bring forth drugs that are more tolerable, have a shorter duration and are more efficacious, Ferreiro adds.

Gilead has few drugs in development that seem to work in a range of genotypes…the duration has moved down from just under a year, which is at the current standard of care to 12 to 24 weeks right now with the potential to go lower, so I’d say that’s probably the biggest opportunity out there for Gilead. We already understand this to be a huge opportunity, but there are ways that it can be bigger. For example, we are all still relatively conservative about how well new therapies can penetrate that market. I think that’s the unknown, and could bring much higher reward to the investor,” Ferreiro said.