Hepatitis B market underestimated: Idenix

BOSTON (Reuters) - The chief executive of Idenix Pharmaceuticals Inc. (IDIX.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) on Tuesday said the potential demand for hepatitis B treatments in the United States and Europe is being underestimated, and that his company's experimental drug will emerge as the preferred treatment.

"We believe we will have the 'best-in-class' drug when we launch" the medicine, said Jean-Pierre Sommadossi at the Reuters Biotechnology Summit in Boston.

Idenix recently asked regulators in the United States and Europe to clear its drug telbivudine as a treatment for hepatitis B -- a liver disease commonly considered a problem mainly in underdeveloped countries, especially in Asia.

"I would not see this disease as only being in Asia," said Sommadossi, who estimated that about 500,000 Americans need treatment to eradicate the virus. He said only 10,000 to 15,000 Americans are treated each year for the virus, which is a leading cause of liver cancer.

Similarly, he said, about 3.5 million people in five major European nations are infected with the virus, 30 percent of whom have a chronic form of the virus that should be treated.

Sommadossi said his drug has clear advantages over the current standard treatment, lamivudine.

He projected the global market for hepatitis B drugs would double to $2 billion by 2009, helped by the expected arrival of telbivudine and the expanded use and promotion of other new drugs.