Conatus Will Present Data on Hepatitis C Drug CTS-1027 At The (EASL) European Association for the Study of the Liver

SAN DIEGO, March 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --
Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc. today announced the acceptance of two poster presentations of Phase 2 clinical trial data of CTS-1027 for the treatment of hepatitis C virus-infected patients at the 46th annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) to be held in Berlin, Germany, on March 30 to April 3, 2011.

Specifically, abstract 562 entitled: 24-WEEK TREATMENT WITH CTS-1027 IN COMBINATION WITH RIBAVIRIN REDUCES HCV-RNA IN TREATMENT NAIVE GENOTYPE-1 PATIENTS will be presented.

In addition, abstract 549 entitled: UNIQUE PATTERN OF VIROLOGIC RESPONSE IN PATIENTS WITH GENOTYPE-1 HCV: A PHASE II STUDY OF CTS-1027 IN COMBINATION WITH PEGINTEFERON/RIBAVIRIN (SOC) IN NULL RESPONDERS will also be presented.

"This will be the first public disclosure of these exciting clinical results and represents a significant step forward to raise awareness of CTS-1027 for the treatment of HCV," said Alfred P. Spada, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Research and Development at Conatus.
"CTS-1027 is a first-in-class oral, small molecule inhibitor of host matrix metalloprotease (MMP) activity. There are no other drugs under development for HCV that operate by the same mechanism of action. Most other approaches to treat HCV infection are direct-acting anti-viral drugs whose activity is directed against virus proteins or enzymes with the objective of reducing the production of virus in infected cells. CTS-1027 by comparison is distinctly different in that its activity is hypothesized to facilitate the immune clearance of virus-infected cells and decrease the frequency of new infections, both of which are of key importance in curing HCV infections," said Steven J. Mento, Ph.D, President and CEO of Conatus.

Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc. is a privately-held biopharmaceutical company engaged in the development of innovative human therapeutics to treat liver disease and oncology. Conatus' lead drug candidate, CTS-1027 is in multiple Phase 2 clinical trials for the treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV). Conatus was founded by the executive management team of Idun Pharmaceuticals in July 2005 following the sale of Idun to Pfizer. For additional information, please visit www.conatuspharma.com.

SOURCE Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc.

RELATED LINKShttp://www.conatuspharma.com