Ascletis Initiates Phase II Clinical Trial of Its Interferon-Free HCV Regimen in Taiwan

SHAOXING, China, Aug. 31, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Ascletis today announced it received the approval from the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) to start phase II clinical trial for its all-oral interferon (IFN)-free regimen to treat chronic hepatitis C (CHC). The regimen contains Ascletis' two direct-acting antiviral agents (DAA), the NS3/4A protease inhibitor ASC08 and the NS5A inhibitor ASC16. The investigator meeting for study initiation was held in Taipei yesterday and the trial will be conducted at 6 major hospitals in Taiwan starting in September 2015，led by principal investigator Prof. Jia-Hoang Kao, MD, Director of Clinical Research Institute at Taiwan University.

The phase II study, named EVEREST, is designed to evaluate the antiviral activity, safety and pharmacokinetics of the regimen. Treatment-naive HCV genotype 1 non-cirrhotic patients will be enrolled and dosed for 12 weeks. The primary endpoint is sustained virologic response at 12 weeks post-treatment (SVR12). Both ASC16 and ASC08 are well tolerated and have shown strong antiviral activity in prior clinical trials, respectively. Combining the two inhibitors, without interferon, is anticipated to increase antiviral efficacy and has a higher barrier to resistance.

"Due to the long treatment duration, significant adverse effects and various kinds of contraindications, many patients cannot tolerate treatment with interferon," said Professor Zhuang Hui, academician of the Chinese Engineering Academy and the honorary Chairman of the Chinese Society of Hepatology, at Peking University Health Science Center, "Ascletis is the first domestic company in China to conduct clinical trials of an all-oral IFN-free HCV regimen. This is exciting news for all Chinese HCV patients. We hope the data to be generated in the EVEREST study can accelerate the approval process in mainland China and Taiwan, as new treatment options are urgently needed to reduce HCV prevalence in China."

"Therapies based on DAAs have predominated the CHC markets in the developed countries; however, there are no DAAs approved in China yet and the combination of PEG-interferon-alpha and ribavirin is still widely used as the Standard of Care (SoC)," said Jinzi J. Wu, Ph.D., Ascletis' founder, President and CEO. "It is Ascletis' vision to bring breakthrough treatments to the Chinese market. With two DAAs in the pipeline, we are developing a triple therapy (ASC08 in combination of PEG-IFN/ribavirin for 12 weeks) and an all-oral-IFN-free therapy to meet different clinical needs of the patients. We believe that the EVEREST study will provide safety and efficacy data to support further development to the market since we want to bring Chinese HCV patients an affordable all-oral IFN-free regimen."

Ascletis also filed earlier this year the clinical trial application for the same IFN-free regimen with China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA).With the successful phase II study of its triple therapy at the beginning of 2015, Ascletis aims to bring both triple and IFN-free therapies to the marketplace to meet different clinical needs of Chinese patients.

About Ascletis

Ascletis is an emerging biotechnology company, dedicated to discovering, developing and commercializing important new treatments for infectious diseases and cancer. Ascletis is focused on clinical development of innovative medicines and commercialization for the growing Chinese pharmaceutical marketplace. Ascletis has assembled an entrepreneurial management and senior scientific team with a track record of successful pharmaceutical discovery and development at major global pharmaceutical and emerging biotechnology companies in the United States and Europe. To date the company has added four late-stage candidates to its product portfolio: ASC08, a clinical stage HCV protease inhibitor licensed from Roche; ASC16, a clinical stage HCV NS5A inhibitor licensed from Presidio Pharmaceuticals; ASC06, a clinical stage, first-in-class, systemically delivered RNAi therapeutic for the treatment of liver cancers licensed from Alnylam Pharmaceuticals; and ASC09, a next-generation HIV protease inhibitor licensed from Janssen, a Johnson & Johnson company. For more information, please visit www.ascletis.com outside China or www.ascletis.com.cn inside China.

About ASC08:

ASC08, also known as danoprevir, is an HCV NS3/4A protease inhibitor. It has been evaluated in 27 phase I and 7 phase II clinical trials with a total of approximately 2400 healthy volunteers and patients tested. DAPSANG (Phase II Study in Taiwan) results show that after 12-week treatment of ASC08 in combination with PEG-IFN and ribavirin, the SVR12 rate observed in genotype 1 non-cirrhotic patients in Taiwan was 94% and in genotype 1b non-cirrhotic patients the SVR12 rate was 100%.

About ASC16:

ASC16, also known as ravidasvir, is a potent pan-genotypic NS5A inhibitor. In a Phase IIa clinical trial in patients with HCV genotype 1a infection, an IFN-free regimen containing ASC16 and other two DAAs was well tolerated and had an SVR12 rate of 92% after 12 weeks of treatment.

SOURCE Ascletis Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd.