ContraVir Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:CTRV) has announced that it would be in attendance at the Sidoti & Company Emerging Growth Convention, fall 2016. The convention is due to be held on November 1, 2016, in New York City. The company stated that it would be represented by its senior VP of Drug Development, Theresa Matkovits, PhD, who would also deliver a presentation, providing overview of business operations at CTRV. She would also be available for one-on-one meetings with registered investors, after the presentation.
The announcement comes just a week after ContraVir received a favorable recommendation from an independent Data Safety Monitory Board, for its phase-2a head-to-head dose-escalation study, of CMX157. The study is aimed at comparing the efficacy and safety of ContraVir’s drug to its competitor Viread, from Gilead Sciences, in patients suffering from hepatitis-B. Following the recommendation, the company has begun enrollment of patients for the study and it expects to complete its two remaining escalation cohorts and report top-line results by the end of this year.
James Sapirstein, the CEO of CTRV, stated that the recommendation, coupled with data from studies of the drug, is an indication of the drug’s potential to become a combinational therapy for the treatment of HBV. He also voiced his belief that CMX157 has the required attributes to become a component of a combination therapy, in the near future. The DSMB review had been scheduled following the filing of interim data, from the ongoing phase-2a study of CMX157. So far, the drug has demonstrated strong antiviral activity and favorable safety profile.
The review was mainly focused on the tolerability, safety and pharmacokinetic profile of the drug, from patient groups who had been administered 5, 10 and 25mg doses of the drug. The trials have been ongoing, for a period of 28-days. The next phase of the trials would focus on escalating this dose to 50 and 100mg, while the dose of Viread would be kept constant at its standard of 300mg.
ContraVir Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:CTRV) gained 9.14% in terms of its share value, on a trade volume of 4.76 million, to close at $2.03 per share, at the end of the October 25 trading session.
