Press Release

December 8, 2009 – Dr. Allison Jilbert from University of Adelaide, Australia, will present our preclinical efficacy data on REP 2055 at the HEP DART 2009 conference to be held in Hawaii on December 6 – 10, 2009. This conference is attended by hundreds of physicians and researchers from pharmaceutical companies and universities worldwide who are involved in multiple facets of drug development for viral hepatitis. See: http://www.informedhorizons.com/hepdart2009/program.aspx

REP 2055 is an amphipathic DNA polymer that was shown in vivo to be an effective suppressor of DHBsAg release into the serum. Four weeks of daily REP 2055 treatment in Pekin ducks persistently infected with DHBV demonstrated a rapid clearance of serum DHBsAg and detection of substantial anti-DHBsAg antibody titers within 3 weeks of initiation of treatment. All ducks which acquired substantial anti-DHBsAg antibody titers by the end of 4 weeks of treatment (55%) also experienced a sustained virologic response for 16 weeks post-treatment, having no detectable serum DHBsAg or DHBV DNA in their serum. Liver biopsies at 16 weeks post-treatment showed no detectable DHBsAg and genomic DHBV (cccDNA) was reduced more than 200 fold compared to pretreatment levels to 0.07copies/hepatocyte.

REP 2055 is the first antiviral agent to have achieved a sustained virologic response off treatment in the duck model and to show evidence of pronounced clearance of infection from the liver. Moreover, the suppression of DHBsAg release has now been validated as a highly effective therapeutic modality which may have great clinical benefit in the treatment of chronic hepatitis B infection in humans.