Enanta Pharmaceuticals Inc (ENTA)

[vinmantoo]

willyw,

Just to add to your cemmentary, the Pardes drug wasn't very good and pales in comparison to EDP-235. See slide 26 of ENTA's presentation.

Some data comparisons.
Vero cell IC50
EDP235 is 68x more potent than the Pardes drug

Vero cell IC90
EDP235 is 54x more potent than the Pardes drug

https://ir.enanta.com/static-files/0b9a9564-339c-4501-8c98-eab636846bf4

An even bigger sidebar is that lack progress in HBV doesn't concern me that much either. They have a potent HBV antiviral (EDP-514) and the competition is also moving very slowly. They could still have a future valuable asset or partnership. I would not characterize it as dead.

While I am disappointed that ENTA hasn't announced another anti-HBV candidate. HBV is a tough nut to crack and better treatments are desperately needed. EDP-514 showed some impressive results so theoretically it is possible for ENTA to pair it with a nuc as a possible treatment. However, ENTA wants a third candidates to push for a functional cure like they were able to achieve with HCV. Patience is a virtue. ENTA isn't a big pharma and has limited money and personnel. With the $200 million coming from the deal for half of their HepC royalties, money is far less of a problem.