Promising early data for ANA380

The USA's Anadys Pharmaceuticals and Korean drugmaker LG Life Sciences presented data from a cell culture study showing that ANA380 (LB80380) retains potency against multiple mutant strains of hepatitis B virus which are resistant to lamivudine, adefovir, entecavir or telbivudine, at the 42nd annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of the Liver, held in Barcelona, Spain.

The study found that, in vitro, antiviral potency of ANA380 against seven of nine mutants resistant to lamivudine, adefovir, entecavir or telbivudine was not significantly different from antiviral potency against wild-type HBV, indicated by a less than or equal to two-fold difference in EC50, a measure of inhibition of virus replication. According to the firm, the data illustrate the "promising spectrum of antiviral activity for ANA380" and also suggest that it "may have clinical utility in drug-naive patients as well as those who have become resistant to the most commonly-used HBV therapeutics."