Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

Any thoughts on the new ANDS data?

There’s nothing really bad in today’s PR as far as I can tell, but the new data do not dispel the notion that ANA598 will have a rash problem.

The “preloading” idea seems to have helped, but there was nonetheless a 21% (6/29) rate of reported rash in the ANA598+SoC arm. As the ANA598 dose is raised to 400mg BID (and perhaps higher), the incidence of rash can be expected to increase.

In #msg-44635086, genisi noted the lack of an ANA598 benefit in VL reduction relative to controls in the gentotype-1b group, but I consider this statistical noise due to the tiny patient numbers of 7 and 3, respectively. Had the ANA598 arm’s RVR rate in the geno-1b group been no better than the control arm’s RVR rate, I would be more concerned, but it was in fact better.

Moreover, the mean log VL reduction in a small cohort can be a misleading metric—it is easily skewed by a difference between arms in VL at baseline because no individual patient can see decline of more than the baseline figure. Regards, Dew