Achillion Pharmaceuticals Announces Virology Profile Following Treatment With ACH-1625 Discussed in Oral Presentation at 2012 Asian Pacific Liver Conference

Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ACHN today announced that novel preclinical and clinical virology data on ACH-1625, a Phase 2 pan-genotypic protease inhibitor, was presented in an oral presentation at the 2012 Annual Conference of the Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver (APASL 2012), February 16-19, 2012, in Taipei, Taiwan. The oral presentation, "Characterization of Hepatitis C Virus Variants Detected in vitro and in vivo After Treatment with ACH-1625, a Potent HCV NS3 Protease Inhibitor," (Abstract PS01-05) was made by Mingjun Huang, Ph.D., Vice President of Virology at Achillion, during APASL 2012 on Friday, February 17. The presentation discussed the viral resistant mutations identified in preclinical and Phase 1 clinical studies. The analyses showed that not only did wild type hepatitis C virus profoundly decline following exposure to ACH-1625, but also that no rebound of the virus carrying the most common resistant mutations, specifically those at loci 155, 156, 168, was observed in genotype 1 HCV patients. Furthermore, the majority of resistant mutants displayed reduced replication fitness in vitro and remained sensitive to other classes of direct-acting antiviral agents.