Progenics has announced the discontinuation of the development program for PRO 206, a pre-clinical compound for the treatment of hepatitis-C virus (HCV) infection.
The decision was made as part of a portfolio review, and is in line with the company’s ongoing initiative to allocate resources to the most important programs in order to increase its operating efficiencies.
The company will instead focus on its second generation HCV entry inhibitor portfolio, and anticipates selection of a new development candidate in 2010.
Paul Maddon, Founder, CEO and Chief Science Officer of Progenics, said: Our research and development team has built a robust platform for HCV drug discovery. While our review indicated that PRO 206 did not satisfy the criteria for further development, our ongoing research and development efforts have yielded new compounds demonstrating comparable potency to PRO 206. These second-generation compounds also indicate a broader spectrum of activity in laboratory studies against the hepatitis C virus.