Ardea Biosciences, Inc. (RDEA)

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Ardea Presents Preclinical Data on Novel Next Generation Non-Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors Demonstrating Potent Anti-HIV Activity Against Resistant Viruses
Monday April 14, 8:00 am ET
-- Lead NNRTI RDEA806 to begin Phase 2b trial in the second quarter of 2008 --

MONTREAL and SAN DIEGO, April 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Ardea Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: RDEA - News) today announced that preclinical data was presented on the Company's next generation non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) family of compounds demonstrating potent activity against the human-immunodeficiency virus (HIV), including NNRTI- resistant strains, with the potential for improved performance over current NNRTIs.

The data were presented at the 21st International Conference on Antiviral Research (ICAR) in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

The compounds in this series are potent against both wild-type and the most common NNRTI-resistant viruses and are more active than efavirenz (Sustiva®, BMS) and nevirapine (Viramune®, Boehringer-Ingelheim) against a broad panel of NNRTI-resistant clinical isolates.

"Safer, better tolerated NNRTIs that also work against viruses resistant to the most widely used NNRTIs, are needed to expand the armamentarium," said Barry D. Quart, PharmD, Ardea Biosciences' President and CEO. "Our lead NNRTI, RDEA806, has shown the potential to match this profile and we are preparing to progress it into a Phase 2b trial later this quarter. An important part of our business strategy is to progress an additional next generation NNRTI, from the structurally novel series presented today, into Phase 1 later this year."

The poster is available on the Company website (http://www.ardeabio.com) under the title, "A Novel NNRTI Class with Potent Anti-HIV Activity against NNRTI-Resistant Viruses."

About RDEA806

RDEA806 is a novel non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) for the potential treatment of HIV infection. Based on preclinical and clinical studies to-date, Ardea believes that RDEA806 may have important competitive advantages. These include the potential for potent antiviral activity against a wide range of HIV viral isolates, including those that are resistant to efavirenz (SUSTIVA®) and other currently available NNRTIs; a high genetic barrier to resistance; the potential to be administered in a patient-friendly, oral dosing regimen; limited pharmacokinetic interactions with other drugs; and the ability to be co-formulated with other HIV antiviral drugs.