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JOHNSON & JOHNSON 2010 ANNUAL REPORT6
“Many people don’t tolerate the
current drugs very well and feel sick,”
says Woodfall, Vice President of Global
Clinical Development for Tibotec
Pharmaceuticals. “And at the end of the
treatment, so many people aren’t cured.”
The current standard treatment may be
successful in less than 50 percent of
patients who have the most prevalent form
of hepatitis C, and there are no alternative
medicines for those who don’t respond.
About 170 million people worldwide
are infected with hepatitis C, with
3 to 4 million new cases each year,
according to the World Health
Organization. It is a common cause of
cirrhosis of the liver, liver cancer and
liver transplants worldwide.
INNOVATIVE TREATMENTS AIM TO
CURE MORE PATIENTS
To meet this critical need, Tibotec
Pharmaceuticals is developing two new
treatments for hepatitis C. The drugs,
telaprevir and TMC435*, have the
potential to cure significantly more people
than currently available therapies and to
halve patients’ treatment time, from 12
months to six. Telaprevir was named one of
the top 10 medical innovations for 2011 by
the Cleveland Clinic. It is now undergoing
review by the U.S. Food and Drug Admin-
istration and the European Medicines
Agency. TMC435 is being evaluated globally
in several large Phase III trials.
“These drugs will potentially decrease
patients’ time away from work and family,
and get them back to improved health
faster,” Woodfall says. “Our research is
driven by an intense commitment to save
lives and improve patients’ health on
a day-to-day basis.”
R&D EXPANDS IN INFECTIOUS DISEASES
The hepatitis C medicines are among the
treatments that the Infectious Diseases and
Vaccines Therapeutic Area is developing to
address high unmet medical needs globally.
Already a world leader in HIV medicines,
the franchise is developing new treatments
for tuberculosis (TB) and HIV, and has part-
nered with Crucell N.V. to develop an
influenza treatment and vaccine. In February
2011, Johnson & Johnson completed its
tender offer for Crucell, which develops
vaccines against infectious diseases world-
wide. As a result, Crucell will now operate
as the center for vaccines within the
Pharmaceuticals group.
“We are developing more effective
treatments for infectious diseases to
improve the lives of millions of people
around the world,” says Paul Stoffels,
M.D.,
Worldwide Chairman, Pharmaceuticals.
“In addition to our growing research and
development in infectious diseases,” he
adds, “we will have a greater impact on
improving human health globally with
our expansion into prevention as we build
our vaccines pipeline, particularly in
emerging markets.”
BREAKTHROUGH TREATMENTS
One of the world’s oldest and most deadly
infectious diseases, tuberculosis kills
1.8 million people a year. Company
researchers’ work in TB has been ground-
breaking, and for the first time in more
than 40 years, a new class of drugs
potentially effective against TB has been
* Telaprevir is developed in collaboration
with Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; TMC435 is
developed in collaboration with Medivir AB.
Hope for Patients With
Infectious Diseases
A
s a researcher working on hepatitis C clinical
trials around the world, Brian Woodfall, M.D.,
is only too aware of the challenges patients
face. Many endure yearlong drug treatments
only to have to undergo a liver transplant or even die from
complications related to the blood-borne virus.
PHARMACEUTICALS