The chief medical officer and cofounder of Trek Therapeutics, Robert Hindes, MD, works alongside the Trek team to develop affordable treatments for viral infections, including hepatitis C (HCV). Previously leading clinical virology activities at Bristol-Myers Squibb in Wallingford, Connecticut, and Pharmasset in Princeton, NJ, Robert Hindes, MD, now provides oversight for all of Trek’s clinical developments. Bringing together talented researchers from various areas of the medical profession, Trek Therapeutics is a public benefit corporation that has made it its goal to help patients worldwide gain access to affordable treatments for viral infections. The company is currently conducting trials to determine the efficacy of Faldaprevir combined with other anti-viral drugs for the treatment of HCV. In September 2016, Trek made available the results of its Phase 2a study of the drug, which examined the effectiveness of Faldaprevir when combined with TD-6450 and RBV. Patients in the study received 120 milligrams (mg) of Faldaprevir, combined with 120 or 60mg of TD-6450, and weight based RBV. In that study, all 16 patients with chronic genotype 4 HCV treated for 12 weeks experienced a sustained viral response to the medication 12 weeks after completion of treatment (SVR12). The same drug regimen was subsequently evaluated in patients with genotype 1b HCV infection, and shown to be highly effective in HCV genotype 1b as well as genotype 4. The genotype 4 study was presented at the 26th Conference of the Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver ( APASL) on February, 2017, in Shanghai, China. The results are considered to be extremely encouraging. Further clinical trials are currently being conducted by Trek with a goal of developing a treatment regimen affordable for most patients in middle-income countries, and in higher income countries for certain populations with poor access to treatment.
