Intercell and Romark join forces in combining therapies against Hepatitis C

26-Oct-2010 - Austria

Intercell AG and Romark laboratories L.C. announced plans to commence clinical trials of Intercell's investigational therapeutic hepatitis C virus (HCV) vaccine, IC41, in combination with Romark's antiviral drug, nitazoxanide, during the first half of 2011.

Intercell's vaccine candidate has demonstrated a sustained reduction of viral load in chronic Hepatitis C (CHC) patients in a Phase II proof-of-concept trial. Nitazoxanide is an oral therapy that targets host cell factors involved in HCV replication and is not associated with viral mutations conferring resistance. Nitazoxanide has been shown to induce sustained virologic response as monotherapy in some patients chronically infected with HCV.

The planned European Phase II trial will include about 60 treatmen-naïve patients chronically infected with HCV genotype-1 in three treatment arms: (1) IC41 plus nitazoxanide, (2) IC41 plus nitazoxanide and Pegasys® (peginterferon alfa-2a) and (3) Pegasys and Copegus® (ribavirin), the current standard of care, as an active control. The primary endpoint will be sustained virologic response (no detectable HCV RNA 24 weeks after end-of-treatment).

The companies involved in the combination study will retain commercial rights for their respective products.

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