Promising Results With Achillion's Ribavirin-Free HCV Regimen

Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq:ACHN) today announced interim results from an ongoing Phase 2 proxy study evaluating ACH-3102, Achillion's second-generation NS5A inhibitor, in combination with sofosbuvir, without ribavirin, for 8 weeks of treatment in patients with treatment-naïve genotype 1 chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Of the 12 patients treated, 100 percent (n=12/12) remained HCV RNA undetectable four weeks after completing therapy (SVR4). Based upon these results, 12 additional patients will begin treatment with six weeks of once daily ACH-3102 and sofosbuvir.

"ACH-3102 continues to demonstrate good safety and tolerability through three Phase 2 studies. We believe these studies also confirm a differentiated efficacy profile for an NS5A inhibitor. Achieving 100% SVR4 with eight weeks of treatment with sofosbuvir serving as a nucleotide proxy indicate that dosing 50 mg once daily of ACH-3102 plus a nucleotide inhibitor has the potential to achieve commercially competitive results for curing HCV in a short duration, ribavirin-free doublet," commented David Apelian, M.D., Ph.D., Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Achillion. "In addition, understanding how ACH-3102 performs with sofosbuvir provides valuable insight for the design of our proprietary combination trial with ACH-3102 and ACH-3422, a uridine-analog nucleotide that continues to advance through its Phase 1 clinical development program."

Source: Achillion