COPENHAGEN, Denmark & WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Avila Therapeutics™, Inc., a biotechnology company developing novel covalent drugs that treat diseases through protein silencing, for the first time presented results of preclinical studies on its small molecule Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) protease inhibitor, AVL-181, that show AVL-181 bonds covalently and irreversibly to HCV protease (also known as “NS3”), thus silencing a key protein necessary for the virus to replicate. The data also show AVL-181 demonstrates activity in vitro with a longer duration of action and better activity against clinically-relevant mutations than other newly emerging therapies for HCV infection. Additionally, the data demonstrate that the amount of HCV protease silenced by AVL-181 can be measured in a dose- and time-dependent manner using Avila’s newly developed translational technologies. The translational approach can now be applied to a novel animal model presented by Avila for the testing of AVL-181 in vivo. These data were presented today at the 44th Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL).
