Achillion soars on positive mid-stage hep C drug combo trial

17 August 2014

US drugmaker Achillion (Nasdaq: ACHN) saw its share rocket 18.4% to a 52-week high of $9.99 in pre-market trading on Friday, when it released positive interim results from an ongoing Phase II proxy study evaluating ACH-3102, the company's second-generation NS5A inhibitor.

The drug is being tested in combination with sofosbuvir, without ribavirin, for eight weeks of treatment in patients with treatment-naive genotype 1 chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Sofosbuvir is the active ingredient of Gilead Sciences new blockbuster hepatitis C drug Sovaldi.

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.

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