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JULY 8th, 2005
Anadys Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANDS), an anti-infective medicines
company, reports that as a result of the expiration of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Antitrust Improvements
Act, the company will receive an initial payment of $20 million from Novartis. The original agreement with Novartis was for
the development and commercialization of ANA975 for chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) and hepatitis B virus (HBV). The company
also indicated that in addition to the $20 million payment, it is now eligible for $550 million in regulatory and commercial
milestone payments. These payments are contingent on the development and commercialization of ANA975.
JUNE 22nd, 2005
Sinovac Obtains First Sales for Hepatitis A&B Vaccines
Sinovac Biotech Ltd. (AMEX:SVA) has announced its first purchase order for its Bilive hepatitis
vaccine. The agreement was signed with Hunan Province Center for Disease Control (CDC).on the 16th of June 2005.
According to Sinovac's VP of Marketing and Sales, Mr. Changju Fu,
sales of the product are expected to grow rapidly, "Sinovac's products are sold in the private market to individuals. Since
people have more disposable income the demand for Sinovac's product keeps increasing. We expect to achieve rapid market penetration
with Bilive in China. Moreover, we are projecting sales growth rates similar to past Healive sales."
Sinovac also noted that the Hepatitis B virus infects approximately
800,000 Chinese citizens and two billion people in the world.
MAY 18th, 2005
Interim Results of Hepatitis B Treatment Presented
Idenix Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: IDIX) has reported that the interim two year results
of an extended treatment phase IIb clinical trial for telbivudine have been presented. Ching-Lung Lai, M.D., lead investigator
and Professor of Medicine and Hepatology, Department of Medicine, University of Hong Kong presented the data at the 2005 Digestive
Disease Week meeting held in Chicago. Professor Lai summarized the results, "Analysis of the study data across treatment groups
suggest that two-year efficacy outcomes, such as persistent control of HBV replication, serum ALT normalization, and HBeAg
seroconversion, are associated with achieving rapid viral suppression early in treatment. Forty-one percent of patients with
profound viral suppression after 24 weeks of treatment achieved seroconversion at two years, compared to only 15 percent of
patients who did not achieve similar rapid viral response. This correlation between early reduction of viral load levels and
longer-term efficacy outcomes suggests that maximizing viral load suppression early in the course of treatment is an important
therapeutic goal."
Nathaniel Brown, M.D., Idenix's Chief Medical Officer was encouraged
by the results, "These two-year treatment results for telbivudine demonstrate that, across key measures of virologic and clinical
outcomes in hepatitis B patients, the efficacy advantages for telbivudine treatment seen after one year were maintained through
two years of treatment. We are encouraged by these longer-term phase IIb data and look forward to the results of the comprehensive
telbivudine phase III GLOBE study, evaluating more than 1370 hepatitis B patients worldwide, which we expect to be available
in the fall of this year.
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