Anadys shares drop 35% on mixed HCV drug data

Anadys shares fell 35.5% to $3.80 in afternoon trading on April 21, after the US drug developer presented mixed early-stage data on ANA598,  its investigational non-nucleoside polymerase inhibitor.

The agent demonstrated potent antiviral activity at all dose levels  and was well tolerated in a Phase Ib study in which patients  chronically infected with the hepatitis C virus were treated for three  days. However, there were three cases of severe skin rash that led the  affected patients to discontinue treatment.

Presented at the annual meeting of the European Association for the  Study of the Liver in Copenhagen, Denmark, findings showed that ANA598  resulted in rapid and sustained reductions in HCV RNA with median  reductions at end of treatment exceeding 2 log10 (>99%) at all dose  levels. At 200mg twice-daily, the median viral load reduction was 2.4  log10 (range of 0.4 to 3.4); at 400mg bid, 2.3 log10 (range of 1.6 to  3.5); and at 800mg bid, 2.9 log10 (range of 2.2 to 3.4).