Assembly Biosciences presents new data on viral hepatitis portfolio

Assembly Biosciences announced new data from its virology portfolio featured in two presentations at the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, AASLD, The Liver Meeting, taking place November 10-14, 2023, in Boston. A poster presentation entitled “In Vitro and in Vivo Profiling of Orally Bioavailable Small Molecules Inhibiting Hepatitis B Virus by Mimicking Interferon Alpha” highlights preclinical data describing the inhibition of hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus in vitro through the activation of interferon signaling by novel small molecule interferon-alpha receptor agonists. The IFNAR agonists described in this poster closely mimic the biological activity of IFNalpha in vitro by stimulating cytokine secretion and inducing IFN-stimulated genes following treatment of human cells. In addition, oral administration to preclinical species resulted in ISG induction in the liver and peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Additionally, an oral presentation is scheduled entitled “Preliminary Off-Treatment Responses Following 48 Weeks of Vebicorvir, Nucleos(t)ide Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitor, and AB-729 Combination in Virologically Suppressed Patients With Hepatitis B e Antigen Negative Chronic Hepatitis B: Analysis From an Open-Label Phase 2 Study.” Results described in this presentation indicate that first-generation core inhibitor vebicorvir (VBR) in combination with nucleos(t)ide reverse transcriptase inhibitor (Nrtl) and Arbutus Biopharma’s AB-729 in virologically suppressed patients with hepatitis B e antigen negative chronic HBV did not result in significantly greater on- or post-treatment improvements in markers of active HBV infection versus the dual combination without VBR. Assembly Bio discontinued development of VBR in 2022