Biotech Values

[mcbio]

Re: ASMB -

ASBM's calculations regarding the rate of natural decay of HBV cccDNA are based on subtracting a poorly-defined duration from another poorly-defined duration, which results in a number that's even more poorly defined that the two input values.

There's room for error in the true rate of natural decay though. For example, even if rate of decay is not truly 12 to 16 weeks in actual chronic HBV patients in the clinic and actually turns out to be, say, 20 weeks or 24 weeks, it's probably not going to matter much. Obviously, if the true rate of decay ends up being several years, then that's a different story (ASMB actually made this point during the presentation).

Beyond the true rate of decay, ASMB (and others targeting this class of HBV drug) are also going to have to ultimately show that silencing cccDNA ultimately has an impact and just too early to know that yet.