Conatus Fact Sheet
Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc. is a privately-held specialty pharmaceutical company engaged in the development of innovative human therapeutics to treat liver disease associated with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. We are currently conducting two Phase 2 clinical trials.
The global prevalence of HCV is 3% of the population, with approximately 170 million persons infected worldwide. In the United States, nearly 2% of the population is infected with this virus. The current standard of care (SOC) treatment in chronic HCV patients, a combination of long-acting pegylated interferon plus ribavirin, leads to sustained viral clearance rates of approximately 50% in treatment naïve patients. New anti-viral drug candidates that target the HCV protease or polymerase, when used in combination with SOC, have shown the potential to increase the response rate to SOC. However, a significant subset of HCV infected patients cannot tolerate SOC because of the severe side effect profile. Additionally, re-treatment options are very limited in patients who have failed SOC in combination with newer therapies. These factors support the need for new, innovative therapies for HCV.
Our lead drug candidate, CTS-1027, is an oral small molecule that inhibits the activity of key members of a class of proteases, the matrix metalloproteases or MMPs. In the liver and in other solid organs, MMPs play an important role in regulating inflammation as well as in maintaining the integrity of the extracellular matrix. Excessive MMP activity has been demonstrated to occur in the liver in response to HCV infection at least in part due to direct up-regulation of MMP RNA transcription by HCV proteins. Data from both our laboratory and the literature suggest that MMP activity in HCV infected patients could play multiple roles in the disease progression of HCV by shifting the balance toward sustained virus replication and away from host-mediated viral clearance through one or more of the following activities: 1) facilitating localized liver inflammation; 2) improving the efficiency of viral RNA replication; 3) promoting virus spread to uninfected cells; and 4) interfering with the host immune response to virus infection. An MMP inhibitor has the potential to impact one or more of these HCV survival strategies.
Conatus has demonstrated that CTS-1027 has desirable activity in a variety of preclinical models of liver inflammation and fibrosis, in the HCV replicon model of viral RNA synthesis, and in a model employing primary human hepatocytes infected with serum from HCV-infected patients. These observations taken together with an extensive literature indicating that MMPs impede interferon action, suggest that CTS-1027 could provide an oral alternative or supplement to injectable interferon as a treatment of HCV.
Conatus has completed a safety and dose finding Phase 2 clinical trial exploring anti-inflammatory properties of CTS-1027 in HCV patients who have failed existing therapies. That trial was completed in 2009.
Conatus is conducting two Phase 2 clinical trials of CTS-1027 alone or in combination with current standard of care drugs for the treatment of HCV. Results are expected to be available in late 2010 and in 2011.
The Conatus team has a strong track record of success in working with key thought leaders to design and carry out human clinical trials that validate the potential of our drug candidates to treat liver disease, to identify mechanisms for liver disease treatments, and to create successful partnerships with global pharmaceutical companies. Our success in generating value for our investors is exemplified by the sale in 2005 of our last company, Idun Pharmaceuticals, Inc., to Pfizer Inc.