Replies to post #79316 on Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

ACHN: Elvucitabine - This is the HIV nuke, which Dew has previously pointed out the flaws behind. I wouldn't expect much out of this one, but Mr. Kishbauch noted that ACHN is in discussions for 3 regional partnerships (one of which has advanced to a term-sheet) for the compound covering Asia, South Africa, and South America. ACHN expects a partnership for elvucitabine by year-end.

Unless elvucitabine can be marketed with a second nuke in a package that undercuts Truvada on pricing, which won’t be easy, I don’t see how it will gain much commercial traction in Third World countries. ACHN might be able to ink some “regional” deals for elvucitabine, but I doubt that they will be lucrative ones.

[mcbio]

ACHN - Presentation @ Thomas Weisel (9/9/09)

There wasn't too much new information reported at this conference, but there were a few new items, as follows:

1. At the end of this month or in early October, ACHN will disclose the full results of the Phase 1a single-ascending dose portion of the ACH-1625 trial in healthy patients and that it has begun to dose HCV-infected patients in the Phase 1b portion of the trial. The compound is reportedly still behaving in-line with its pre-clinical profile. ACHN still expects to report PoC data from the Phase 1b trial during 1Q10.

2. ACHN had previously reported that they were in advanced and advancing discussions with three major players in the HCV space. ACHN reported that the list is now "5/6" and consists of the major players in the HCV space who have gaps in the protease portion of their portfolio. Dew or others: any speculation as to who this could be? Presumably, MRK, JNJ, Roche, ABT, and BMY can be excluded. So, who else is left in this space? Possibly NVS, GSK, PFE? Also, I don't think GILD has a PI in development for HCV, or at least not at the clinical stage, so perhaps GILD is a possible candidate to go along with their existing partnership with ACHN for ACH-1095.