NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Achillion Pharmaceuticals climbed Monday after the company reported clinical trial results for one of its experimental hepatitis C drugs.
Achillion said all 12 patients who were treated with its drug ACH-3102 and Sovaldi, a blockbuster medication sold by Gilead Sciences Inc., had undetectable levels of the hepatitis C virus after eight weeks. Patients took the drugs once per day and Achillion said none of them have suffered a disease relapse.
Shares of Achillion Pharmaceuticals Inc. rose $2.35, or 23.3 percent, to $12.46 in afternoon trading.
Achillion is studying several treatments for hepatitis C. In 2015 the company plans to start testing a three-drug cocktail that includes ACH-3102 and its drugs ACH-3422 and sovaprevir. If successful, that regimen would allow patients to be treated without interferon or ribavirin — two drugs that have been a staple of hepatitis C treatment for years, but which can cause unpleasant side effects. Sovaldi was approved in late 2013 and is taken without interferon.
