Ardea’s HIV Drug Found Effective in Preclinical Studies

Ardea Biosciences has presented preclinical data that demonstrated the potent activity of the company’s non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor family of compounds against the human-immunodeficiency virus, the known causative agent of AIDS, including NNRTI-resistant strains.

The data showed that Ardea’s lead NNRTI candidate, RDEA806, is a potent inhibitor of HIV, including the most common efavirenz resistant viruses. Oral dosing with RDEA806 achieved trough levels in humans that average at least 10-fold higher than the serum-adjusted EC50.

Barry Quart, president and CEO of Ardea, said: “This level of exposure over the concentration of drug needed to inhibit replication of the virus by 50% supports the potential for promising antiviral activity of our drug in HIV-infected patients who are naive to antiretroviral therapy.”