Idenix Pharmaceuticals Presents Positive Preclinical Data on HCV Programs at The Annual Meeting of The European Association for the Study of the Li...( CAMBRIDGE Mass. and MILAN Italy A...),Health

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., and MILAN, Italy, April 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Idenix Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: IDIX), a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of drugs for the treatment of human viral and other infectious diseases, today announced preclinical data from the company's polymerase and protease inhibitor programs for the treatment of hepatitis C. These data are being presented at the Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) being held this week in Milan, Italy.

Second-Generation Nucleoside Polymerase Inhibitor Program

IDX184 is a nucleotide prodrug derived from Idenix's proprietary liver- targeting technology. Results from in vitro and in vivo preclinical studies confirm that this technology preferentially activates IDX184 in the liver, potentially enhancing the antiviral activity of the drug and limiting systemic side effects. In an HCV replicon model, IDX184 exhibited 10 times greater potency than the first-generation HCV nucleoside clinical drug candidates currently in development. In HCV genotype-1 infected chimpanzees, once-daily oral administration of 10 mg/kg of IDX184 resulted in a mean viral load reduction of 2.3 log10 (n=5) after four days of dosing. No toxicities, including gastrointestinal or hematological, or abnormal blood chemistry were observed at oral doses greater than or equal to 600 mg/kg/day in a supporting seven-day toxicology study in cynomolgus monkeys.

IDX184 demonstrated additive antiviral activity in the HCV replicon in combination with HCV protease inhibitors and interferon and synergistic activity in combination with ribavirin. IDX184 also remained fully active in vitro against HCV containing known protease and non-n
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