The milestone payment was triggered by Pharmasset’s successful completion of certain manufacturing activities defined in the hepatitis C virus (HCV) agreement with Roche. This included the development of nucleoside polymerase inhibitors, such as R7128.
“We are pleased to have completed several key chemistry process development and CMC activities for our HCV program,” stated Dr Darryl Cleary, Pharmasset’s vice president, Manufacturing. “Our HCV collaboration with Roche has effectively overcome one of the rate-limiting steps in clinical development programs.”
R7128 is a polymerase inhibitor being developed by Pharmasset and Roche for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C. R7128 is currently being studied in a phase I dose study designed to assess the safety and pharmacokinetics of R7128 in healthy volunteers, as well as provide antiviral potency data over 14 days in HCV-infected individuals.