Medivir designates HIV drug candidate

By E. Janene Geiss

Philadelphia, Feb. 9 - Medivir AB said Thursday that it has reached a milestone in its HIV NNRTI research program and has now designated a clinical drug candidate, MIV-170.

The drug candidate will enter the preclinical development phase, which is the stage immediately prior to clinical trials, according to a company news release.

But as previously announced in December, Medivir said it plans to divest or outlicense its HIV, HBV and shingles polymerase projects through its subsidiary, Medivir HIV Franchise AB.

Accordingly, Medivir said it does not intend to invest additional internal resources in MIV-170.

MIV-170 belongs to the NNRTI class of drugs, which constitutes one of the three components in contemporary standard treatment regimes for HIV/AIDS, officials said.

These combination regimes offer efficacious therapy, but in the long term, the problem of resistance development still remains, and the currently marketed triple combinations also give rise to certain side effects. These shortfalls mean that there is still a place for the introduction of new and improved pharmaceuticals, officials said.

Sales of NNRTI pharmaceuticals currently amount to around SEK 8 billion, and the market is dominated by two products, Sustiva, made by Bristol Myer Squibb and Viramune, made by Boehringer Ingelheim.

MIV-170 is an "exceptionally active" inhibitor of both wild type and clinical NNRTI-resistant HIV viruses, officials said. Therefore, it has very competitive properties in comparison to the established NNRTIs on the market.

Additionally, compared to its competitors, the compound has very attractive properties in other areas, such as good bioavailability and pharmacokinetics. This is predictive that MIV-170 could be an efficacious HIV drug with once daily dosing, officials said.

Medivir, based in Huddinge, Sweden, and Essex, England, is a pharmaceutical company focused on development of drugs with proteases as the target enzyme. The goal of the company is to become a self-sustaining, profitable, research-based pharmaceutical company with proprietary products on the market, officials said. The group comprises Medivir AB, subsidiary Medivir UK Ltd., Medivir HIV Franchise AB and Medivir Personal AB.

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