Health and Healthcare

ContraVir Pharma Takes Off on Positive Results

Chris Lange

Published: March 29, 2016 12:35 pm

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 11:24 am

ContraVir Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CTRV) led the bulls early on Tuesday following the release of positive hepatitis B results. The company reported positive results from a third-party in vitro study that further validates CMX157’s profile as a highly potent anti-hepatitis B drug.

In this first head-to-head in vitro study, CMX157 compared favorably to tenofovir alafenamide fumarate (TAF), which was recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as part of a four-drug combination therapy for HIV-1 (Genvoya), and is currently under development by Gilead for treating chronic hepatitis B infection.

ContraVir recently initiated a Phase 1/2a clinical study of CMX157, which is currently enrolling healthy volunteers and is anticipated to begin enrolling hepatitis B patients in the second quarter 2016.

The study compared the anti-hepatitis B activities of CMX157 and other tenofovir prodrugs, including tenofovir DF (Viread), in order to profile CMX157 among this important class of antiviral therapies. The study findings revealed that CMX157 and TAF were similarly potent against hepatitis B virus.

Furthermore, viral rebound studies showed that CMX157 demonstrates best-in-class duration of activity.

For some background, ContraVir is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of targeted antiviral therapies with two candidates in mid-to-late stage clinical development. ContraVir’s lead clinical drug, FV-100, is an orally available nucleoside analogue prodrug that is being developed for the treatment of herpes zoster, or shingles, which is currently in Phase 3 clinical development.

Shares of ContraVir were up 26% at $1.88 by Tuesday afternoon, with a consensus analyst price target of $6.00 and a 52-week trading range of $0.76 to $6.28.