Data Presented on Monogram HIV Tropism Tests at Retrovirus Conference sets New Standards of Assay S...(velopment. Two six-month Phase IIb clini...)

"INCB9471 has the potential to become an important tool in the fight against drug-resistance HIV," said Sue Erickson-Viitanen, Incyte's Sr. Director of Virology Drug Development. "Selecting the appropriate patients is critical to the success of our clinical development program. We're confident Monogram's leadership in HIV diagnostics and the Trofile assay's established position as the only clinically validated tropism test, provide a solid foundation for successfully progressing INCB9471 forward in these upcoming trials."

"Incyte's CCR5 antagonist has the potential to be a very significant addition to HIV therapy, and we are delighted to be working with Incyte on their program," said Young.

About Trofile

Trofile is a patient selection co-receptor tropism assay that determines whether a patient is infected with a strain of HIV that uses either the CCR5 coreceptor, the CXCR4 coreceptor, or a combination of CCR5 and CXCR4 to enter cells. The use of CCR5, CXCR4 or both coreceptors defines the "tropism" of the virus strain. Trofile amplifies the envelope gene from a patient's HIV genome (from their blood sample) and then uses it to make HIV particles containing the patient's virus envelope protein. The resultant HIV particles are then used to infect cells that contain the CCR5 co-receptor or the CXCR4 co-receptor on the cell surface. Once the virus infects the cell, it undergoes a single round of replication. Virus replication results in the production of luciferase from a luciferase gene that is carried into the cell by the virus. The production of luciferase in either CCR5 cells, CXCR4 cells or both cell types defines the co-receptor tropism of the patient virus. Trof
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