SAN DIEGO, Oct. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc., a privately held, clinical stage company developing a treatment for liver disease associated with Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), announced today that Steven J. Mento, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer, will present at the Montgomery Healthcare Conference being held in Menlo Park, CA, on October 6, 2009. Conatus is one of only 30 companies selected to present to this invitation-only audience of senior-level private equity and venture capital investors and corporate industry executives.
Dr. Mento will provide a corporate overview and highlight Conatus’ scientific rationale, progress in clinical development and business development strategy of its lead compound, CTS-1027.
Conatus recently initiated a second Phase 2 clinical trial with its novel drug candidate CTS-1027 for the treatment of liver disease associated with HCV infection. The trial is enrolling patients who have not undergone therapy with approved standard of care treatments. Results from an earlier Phase 2 clinical trial in HCV patients who failed standard of care treatment are expected to be reported later this year.
CTS-1027 is an oral, small molecule compound that inhibits the activity of key members of a class of protease enzymes, the matrix metalloproteinases or MMPs. CTS-1027 has shown to be effective in multiple preclinical models of inflammatory liver disease and HCV infection.
“Preclinical studies suggest that treatment with CTS-1027 has the potential to impact the second phase of HCV inhibitory kinetics in patients. This phase is associated with the gradual reduction and replacement of HCV-infected cells by uninfected liver cells,” said Steven J. Mento, President and CEO of Conatus. “We believe that CTS-1027 represents a novel approach to treating HCV disease and look forward to developing this drug candidate to fill an important medical need in HCV-infected patients.”
Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc. is a privately-held specialty pharmaceutical company engaged in the development of innovative therapeutics to treat liver disease. Chronic liver disease affects millions of people worldwide and can be caused by many different conditions or “insults” to the liver including Hepatitis C and other viral infections, obesity, chronic alcohol abuse or autoimmune diseases. Conatus was founded by the executive management team of Idun Pharmaceuticals in July 2005 following the successful sale of Idun to Pfizer. For additional information, please visit www.conatuspharma.com.
SOURCE Conatus Pharmaceuticals
CONTACT: Steven J. Mento, Ph.D., President and CEO, +1-858-457-7222,
smento@conatuspharma.com, or Charles J. Cashion, Sr. VP and CFO,
+1-858-457-7221, ccashion@conatuspharma.com, both of Conatus
Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Web site: http://www.conatuspharma.com/
