Its next bestseller, PEG-Intron, used to treat hepatitis C, could be challenged soon as well.
Schering-Plough, which has long dominated the interferon market, sells the very similar polymer-coated interferon called Peg-Intron.
Peg-Intron cuts injections to once a week and bumps the cure rate above 50%.
Schering also got caught boosting sales of hepatitis drug Peg-Intron with dodgy marketing schemes.
Pegasys' only competition will be PEG-Intron, a very similar drug made by Kenilworth, N.
Other doctors--and the FDA--are increasingly saying the same thing, and not just with Peg-Intron and Pegasys.
Now, the real battle begins, as Roche positions Pegasys to compete with Schering-Plough 's PEG-Intron.
PEG-Intron has already been on the market for almost two years, making it a well-established product.
PEG-Intron was developed using technology at Enzon (nasdaq: ENZN - news - people ).
Pegasys and PEG-Intron last longer, are more effective and have fewer side effects than the older treatments.
Basel, Switzerland-based Roche has started a price war between its hepatitis C drug, Pegasys, and Schering-Plough's Peg-Intron.
Moreover, some analysts don't think there is much difference between Pegasys and PEG-Intron.
In September Schering announced plans for a 2, 880-person trial to prove once and for all that Peg-Intron is a better drug.
There is no reason to believe that these new treatment regimens wouldn't work with PEG-Intron, but there is also no proof.
"Our label says you can use PEG-Intron alone or with Rebetol for up to 48 weeks, " says Schering-Plough spokesman Robert Consalvo .
It has also improved on Rebetron with a drug called Peg-Intron, a "pegylated" combination of interferon and polyethylene glycol (Peg for short).
Its hepatitis C medicines, Rebetol and Peg-Intron, are facing tough competition from a new entrant from Roche , a Basel, Switzerland-based drug giant.
Pegasys and PEG-Intron are both significant improvements over old ways of treating the hepatitis C virus, which can slowly damage or destroy the liver.
Sales in the flagship drug unit are up 13% so far this year as Pegasys has stolen patients away from Schering-Plough's competing product, Peg-Intron.
Last summer sales of Schering-Plough's only other big seller, the hepatitis drug Peg-Intron, nose-dived as doctors switched to a new and more convenient compound from Roche Holding.
In justifying his strong buy rating on the company, Carl Byrns at Dain Rauscher Wessels points to an anti-viral drug: Peg-intron plus ribavirin combination therapy for Hepatitis C.
It had a big hit with Ribavarin, an anti-viral drug that is packaged with Schering-Plough 's (nyse: SGP - news - people ) hepatitis C drug, PEG-Intron.
One of the most striking: The company has shown that patients with certain types of hepatitis C respond as well to 24 weeks of Pegasys as they do to 48 weeks of PEG-intron.
Schering-Plough faces legal investigations into its disclosure and pricing practices, a dismal relationship with the Food and Drug Administration and cutthroat competition on its best-selling drug, a treatment for hepatitis C called Peg-Intron.
Most patients taking PEG-Intron are given the drug packaged with Ribapharm 's (nyse: RNA - news - people ) ribavirin drug--the combination therapy can get rid of hepatitis C entirely in many patients.
The company is betting on studies showing that patients with certain strains of the hepatitis C virus can do with half as much time on Pegasys as they can on Schering-Plough 's (nyse: SGP - news - people ) Peg-Intron.
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