VICTRELIS™ Unanimously Recommended for Approval by FDA Advisory Committee (MRK)

Merck MRK announced today that the Antiviral Drugs Advisory Committee of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration voted unanimously that the available data support approval of Merck's investigational medicine VICTRELIS™ for the treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis C virus genotype 1 infection in combination with current standard therapy. VICTRELIS is one of a new class of medicines known as HCV protease inhibitors being evaluated by the FDA for the treatment of chronic HCV genotype 1 infection in adult patients with compensated liver disease who are previously untreated or who have failed previous therapy.