Monday, August 19, 2013

Medivir refocuses hepatitis C vaccine research

Medivir refocuses hepatitis C vaccine research

Published on August 19, 2013 by Emma Rogers

Medivir AB announced on Thursday that it will exclusively focus its research on the development of its proprietary hepatitis C vaccine based on nucleotide inhibitors.

Medivir was previously working on the development of two hepatitis C vaccines: a nucleotide-based inhibitor vaccine and a vaccine with NS5A replication complex inhibitors. Medivir recently evaluated the climate of the competitive market and its projection for the future development of therapies for HCV infections and decided to end its NS5A program to focus its resources exclusively on the nucleotide-based inhibitor HCV.

“We remain very excited about our HCV nucleotide-based inhibitor program and the opportunity to develop a compound that could play an important role in interferon-free treatment,” Executive Vice President of Discovery Research at Medivir Richard Bethell said. “Given the attractive attributes of the nucleotide polymerase class and the scarcity of safe and effective inhibitors today’s decision to discontinue our NS5A program will enable us to focus our resources on our nucleotide-based polymerase program which is best placed to deliver an effective new medication for physicians and their patients.”

Hepatitis C is an infectious disease of the liver that claims the lives of approximately 350,000 people per year. Today approximately 150 million people are positive for Hepatitis C infections. The disease is a leading cause of chronic liver disease.

Medivir is a research-based pharmaceutical company that seeks to find solutions for infectious diseases. It currently has a Hepatitis C protease inhibitor vaccine in a Phase III clinical trial.

This story filed in Vaccine Development and tagged Hepatitis, vaccine development.
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