Pharmasset announced November 9 the receipt of a $7.5 million milestone payment from Roche. The milestone payment was triggered by Pharmasset's successful completion of certain manufacturing-related activities defined in their hepatitis C virus (HCV) collaboration agreement with Roche for the development of nucleoside polymerase inhibitors, including R7128.
“We are pleased to have completed several key chemistry process development and CMC activities for our HCV program," stated Dr. Darryl Cleary, Pharmasset's vice president for manufacturing. "Our HCV collaboration with Roche has effectively overcome one of the rate-limiting steps in clinical development programs."
R7128 is a polymerase inhibitor being developed by Pharmasset and Roche for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C. R7128, an investigational agent, is currently being studied in a Phase I single-ascending and multiple-ascending dose study designed to assess the safety and pharmacokinetics of R7128 in healthy volunteers, as well as provide antiviral potency data over 14-days in HCV-infected individuals.
Pharmasset is a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company committed to discovering, developing and commercializing novel drugs to treat viral infections. Pharmasset's primary focus is on the development of oral therapeutics for the treatment of hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
