Positive preclinical data on Idenix HCV drugs

The USA's Idenix Pharmaceuticals presented data at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of the Liver in Copenhagen,  Denmark, showing a good pharmacokinetic profile for IDX184, its  once-daily, oral nucleotide polymerase inhibitor prodrug currently being  evaluated in a Phase Ib/IIa trial.

In another presentation at the EASL meeting, its protease inhibitor  DX316, currently undergoing Investigational New Drug-enabling  preclinical studies, exhibited potent activity against HCV NS3/4A  proteases from multiple genotypes (1a, 1b, 2a and 4a) and in HCV  replicons.

Long-term in vitro treatment (14 days) with IDX316 produced high levels  of suppression that was maintained over the treatment period without  evidence of rebound or cytotoxicity. IDX316 also demonstrated high  selectivity, with tight binding to the HCV protease and no activity  observed against eight human cellular proteases. Favorable PK profiles  in rodent and non-human primate species suggest the potential for once-  or twice-daily dosing in humans (half-life of 4.0-5.2 hours;  bioavailability of approximately 20%).