SciClone up 28 pct after Zadaxin follow-up data

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Wednesday March 13, 12:26 pm Eastern Time

SciClone up 28 pct after Zadaxin follow-up data

LOS ANGELES, March 13 (Reuters) - Shares of SciClone Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NasdaqNM:SCLN - news) rose 28 percent on Wednesday after the drug developer said follow-up data from a Turkish trial of its lead drug Zadaxin showed that it is effective in hard-to-treat hepatitis B patients 18 months after treatment.

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Shares of the San Mateo, California-based company were up 90 cents at $4.15 on Nasdaq.



SciClone said data from the Turkish trial, presented at the World Congress of Gastroenterology in Bangkok, Thailand, this month, indicate that, after an additional 12-month follow-up period for chronic hepatitis B patients, 71 percent of patients that used Zadaxin in combination with interferon continued to respond to treatment, as measured by replication of the virus, versus 10 percent for the patients that used interferon alone.



Interferons are a class of drugs used to treat viral infections.



Zadaxin, a synthetic form of a naturally occurring peptide that enhances the body's immune system, is approved for sale in 26 countries, mainly to treat hepatitis B and hepatitis C, and certain cancers. The drug has not been approved for use in Japan, Europe and the United States.



``One of the most difficult challenges in successfully treating a viral disease is to achieve a durable sustained response. All too often a successful end of therapy result changes into patient relapse weeks or months later,'' Alfred Rudolph, SciClone's chief operating officer, said in a statement.



In the original study, 21 patients received 26 weeks of Zadaxin plus interferon followed by 26 weeks of interferon alone and 10 patients received 52 weeks of interferon alone.



At the end of the initial six-month, treatment-free follow-up period, 76 percent of patients receiving the combination therapy showed a sustained response compared with 40 percent of patients oninterferon alone.



``This independent study supports our efforts to develop Zadaxin as a critical component of combination drug therapies for infectious diseases and cancer,'' said Eduardo Martins, the company's medical director.



Earlier this month, SciClone said early results from a pivotal-stage trial in Japan of Zadaxin as a stand alone therapy showed it is effective in about one-quarter of hepatitis B patients after six months of therapy and 12 months of follow-up.

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