March 10, 2011

An unusually high cure rate recorded after ChronVac-C® vaccination followed by standard treatment in patients with genotype 1 chronic hepatitis C

10 Mar, 2011 07:56 CET

Of six patients with genotype 1 chronic hepatitis C virus infection treated with standard of care treatment following participation in a clinical trial with four ChronVac-C® vaccinations, five have been cured, i.e. are virus free six months after completed treatment. These are unusually good treatment results for patients carrying the hard-to-treat variant of hepatitis C-virus called genotype 1.

As was previously reported seven patients chronically infected with hepatitis virus-C (HCV) of genotype 1 who participated in the now completed ChronVac-C® study have received treatment with standard-of-care for chronic infection with HCV, i.e. interferon combined with ribavirin. Five of seven of the patients responded rapidly on the treatment with <50 virus copies/mL blood already after four weeks (so called rapid viral response), and 6/7 were virus free already by week 12. These good results were maintained at a later follow up during the treatment and now it can be concluded that 5/6 of the patients who have completed their treatment have been cured from their chronic HCV infection. Usually approximately 40-45% of the patients with genotype 1 are cured by standard-of-care. New treatments with the additions of so called protease inhibitors cure 60-70% of the treated patients. All in all, the results for ChronVac-C® in combination with standard-of-care treatment are very good.

“Although the number of patients is very small, we are cautiously optimistic. This encouraging data actually match these received with the coming protease inhibitor therapies. We look forward to the continued clinical development of ChronVac-C®”, says Anders Vahlne, CEO of ChronTech Pharma AB.

For more information, please contact:
Anders Vahlne, CEO and Head of Research, ChronTech Pharma AB
Tel: +46 8 5858 1313, mobile phone: +46 709 28 05 28,
E-mail: anders.vahlne@ki.se

About ChronTech

ChronTech develops the therapeutic DNA vaccines ChronVac-C® and ChronVac-B drugs against chronic hepatitis C virus and hepatitis B virus infections, i.e. chronic infections with jaundice causing viruses which can lead to liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. ChronTech has also developed and further develops a patent pending new type of injection needle for a more effective uptake of DNA vaccines. ChronTech also have part ownership in the wound healing therapy ChronSeal®, and in the new platform technology RAS®. The ChronTech share is admitted to trade on First North. Remium AB is Certified Adviser for ChronTech. For more information, please visit: www.chrontech.se

In the event of any discrepancy between the Swedish and English versions of this press release, the Swedish version will take precedence.

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