Anadys hepatitis candidate enters clinic

ANA975 is an oral prodrug of Anadys’ proprietary small molecule compound isatoribine, an agonist of toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7). Results from clinical trials of isatoribine have demonstrated a statistically significant viral load reduction in hepatitis C patients by activating innate immunity.

The phase I clinical trial, which introduces ANA975 to the clinic ahead of schedule, is designed to evaluate the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of ANA975 in healthy volunteers. The study is an open-label, ascending single-dose evaluation and is being conducted in the UK.

“We expect that ANA975 will provide the same combination of anti-viral effect and tolerability as observed with isatoribine, but with the added advantage of oral administration,” said Dr Steve Worland, Anadys’ executive vice president of R&D.

“The pharmaceutical properties of ANA975 along with the preclinical data further support our belief that ANA975 provides the potential to become an orally administered frontline treatment for chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection,” he concluded.