NEW YORK (AP) – Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. said on Dec. 2 that it will collaborate with a unit of Johnson & Johnson to study a potential combination therapy for chronic Hepatitis C.

The companies will study a regimen that combines Johnson & Johnson’s drug, TMC435, with Bristol-Myers Squibb’s daclatasvir. The clinical trial of the drug cocktail will begin in the first half of 2012. It will include a combination of the two drugs, the drugs plus pegylated interferon and ribavirin, and the drugs plus ribavirin.

Bristol-Myers of New York and Johnson & Johnson, based in New Brunswick, N.J., did not disclose the terms of their partnership.

The Associated Press