Yaroslavl biotech innovators develop new chronic C-type hepatitis drug

Intellectual Dialog, a Yaroslavl-based biotech company in Central Russia, has launched clinical trials of its brand new drug candidate to fight chronic C-type hepatitis.

Intellectual Dialog, a Yaroslavl-based biotech company in Central Russia, announced earlier this month that it has launched clinical trials of its brand new target drug candidate to fight chronic C-type hepatitis. The federal Russian Ministry of Industry and Commerce, the key government body to oversee pharmaceutical developments in Russia, is expected to support the testing, the company said. Intellectual Dialog is pushing its own technology to develop a drug candidate with ?an unparalleled mechanism of action.? The candidate is designated ID-4025; it is an inhibitor of the NS5A protein that is responsible for the virus? multiplication. ?Preclinical trials have led us to conclude that the ID-4025 is highly active in inhibiting the C-type hepatitis virus and has no adverse toxic effect on animal cells,? said Mikhail Dorogov, the CEO of Intellectual Dialog. The incidence of C-type hepatitis has been on the rise in Russia and globally. According to World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, more than 500 million people are infected with the C-type hepatitis virus worldwide. There are conflicting estimates for Russia, but C-type hepatitis cases amount to something between three million and five million...