Roche drops midphase hepatitis B and eye disease programs in quarterly pipeline clearout
By Nick Paul Taylor
Oct 18, 2022 05:55am
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Roche building
Roche also updated the targeted timing of its planned filing for approval of tiragolumab in esophageal cancer. (Photo by SEBASTIEN BOZON/AFP via Getty Images)
Roche has taken the scissors to its clinical development pipeline, snipping off phase 2 studies of potential treatments for hepatitis B virus and geographic atrophy in the quarterly cull of its investigational assets.
The hepatitis B candidate removed (PDF) from phase 2 is RG7907, a core protein allosteric modulator that is also known as RO7049389. Roche took the drug candidate into midphase development in 2020 on the strength of evidence the small molecule inhibits replication of the virus by disrupting the assembly of its nucleocapsids and inducing the depletion of functional core proteins.
After reviewing phase 1 data in 2019, Roche felt the candidate could be part of a combination of drug molecules capable of curing hepatitis B infection. Three years later, Roche has dropped the prospect. The action comes months after the completion of a phase 1 trial and during a phase 2 study set up to test the candidate in two combinations.
Roche remains a player in the pursuit of a hepatitis B cure even after the defenestration of RG7907. The multi-regimen phase 2 features multiple combinations of other candidates, such as the siRNA prospect RG6346, which uses technology from Novo Nordisk’s Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, and the TLR7 agonist RG7854.