Announcing New Hepatitis C Treatment to Prevent Drug Resistance
Presidio Pharmaceuticals Receives Exclusive License to Novel Hepatitis C Technology
www.endonurse.com
January 18, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO — Presidio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that it has licensed the exclusive worldwide rights to novel hepatitis C virus (HCV) technology from Stanford University. This technology, invented in the lab of Stanford scientist Jeffrey Glenn, targets a specific region found in the HCV proteins NS4B and NS5A, viral proteins that are absolutely required for virus replication. Disrupting the normal function of these two proteins provides for a new method of HCV treatment and should combat the emergence of drug resistance to new HCV polymerase and protease inhibitors that will be on the market in the near future.
“We are very pleased to have licensed the rights to this exciting new technology,” said Omar K. Haffar, PhD, president and CEO of Presidio. “We expect to work closely with Glenn and other experts in the field to identify and test new small molecules that bind to NS4B and NS5A in order to interrupt the life cycle of the virus.”
About the Hepatitis C Virus
Infections from the hepatitis C virus (HCV) have reached pandemic proportions, affecting almost 200 million people worldwide. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 3.9 million Americans have been exposed to HCV, resulting in 2.7 million cases of chronic infection, with up to 30,000 new infections occurring each year.
Source: Business Wire