Schering Plough and PTC to tackle HCV

Schering-Plough has announced collaboration with biopharmaceutical company PTC Therapeutics for the development of PTC’s preclinical compounds for hepatitis C virus (HCV) oral treatment.

The preclinical compounds, which were discovered by PTC’s Gene Expression Modulation by Small-molecules (Gems) technology, are also being developed as a treatment for other viral diseases.

“The goal of this alliance is to develop new oral therapies to improve treatment for patients with hepatitis C, one of the most serious and common blood borne infections in the world,” said Dr Catherine D Strader, executive vice president, discovery research, Schering-Plough Research Institute.

“Schering-Plough is continuing its leadership in hepatitis C through internal research programmes and strategic collaborations with innovative companies such as PTC, with a focus on developing targeted viral inhibitors.”

The collaboration includes a joint research project into use of the compounds, in addition to Schering-Plough making an upfront capital injection of $12 million to help fund the research.

Schering-Plough will have any worldwide commercialisation rights for approved projects, while potential payments to PTC by Schering-Plough could reach as much as $200 million.

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