Enanta Pharmaceuticals Inc (ENTA)

[vinmantoo]

Yes, rodent PK has been shown. But why not the efficacy? If I had a dime for every drug that had good absorption and tissue distribution I would be a rich man.

Just for laughs, tell us all the anti-viral drugs with well defined MOAs for specific well-studied viruses, such Covid-19, where drug levels far exceeded the level needed to inhibit viral replication but that failed miserably. Please exclude viruses that integrate into the host's DNA. That should be a very long list as you said it would take only take a dime for each example to make you a rich man. I mean, at $0.10 a pop you would need 10 million examples to get to a mere $1 million.

You don't seem to grasp that Covid is a virus that has been extensively studied and the protease that EDP-235 target whose activity is indispensable for viral replication. Inhibiting that protease has been proven to provide excellent efficacy. The EDP-235 concentration needed to inhibit Covid has been assessed and the bioavailability in animals as well as in humans from the phase I trial makes it crystal clear that EDP-235 greatly exceeds that concentration. The only concern I have is potential safety issues. However, such concerns are lessened greatly by the good phase I safety data and the fact treatment is a once-daily dosage over only for 5 days and doesn't requite a drug pump inhibitor like Paxlovid does. I urge you to short away.

Possibly inspired by the success of HIV protease inhibitors, of which eleven drugs are FDA approved, multiple SARS-CoV-2 main protease inhibitors are under develop- ment. One protease inhibitor candidate drug with FDA fast track designation, EDP-235 (Enanta Pharmaceuticals), is currently in a phase 2 clinical trial. Unlike Paxlovid and Mol- nupiravir, which require twice-daily doses, EDP-235 is targeted as a once-daily oral drug that does not require co-administration of Ritonavir18. Interestingly, Glecaprevir, a com- ponent of the hepatitis C drug Mavyret (identified jointly by Enanta and AbbVie), is a high affinity macrocyclic inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 main protease19. As such, is EDP-235 repurposed macrocyclic Glecaprevir that is being developed as an antiviral drug against SARS-CoV-2? This is not unreasonable, since Enanta has two issued compound owner- ship (COM) US patents (8,648,037; and 9,220,748). More likely EDP-235 is a macrocyclic spiropyrrolidine derived structure cited in US patent 11,319,325 and assigned this year to Enanta for treatment of coronavirus infection. A confounding factor regarding little infor- mation about the structure of EDP-235 may be a patent infringement suit concerning Paxlovid, filed by Enanta June 21, 2022 against Pfizer and prompted by Enanta's US patent 11,358,953, issued June 14, 2022.

The above quote is from unreviewed preprint that has just been submitted but it does provide good information.

https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202211.0221/v1