ContraVir Pharmaceuticals $CTRV said new findings confirmed that CRV431, the company’s cyclophilin inhibitor, reduces the number and size of liver tumors in a hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) mouse model.
ContraVir, which is focused on developing a potentially curative therapy for the hepatitis B virus (HBV), said the preclinical study could lead to a pipeline expansion that would be another step toward its ultimate goal of reducing the burden of liver disease.
Worldwide, liver cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths, with as many as 750,000 deaths annually. HCC, which is correlated the surface antigen prevalence of HBV, is the most common type of primary liver cancer, according to ContraVir. Chronic HBV and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections cause up to 70% of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cases.
In certain regions such as Asia and Africa, HBV and HCV are the leading risk factors for developing HCC. Another risk factor for development of HCC is non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), present in about 30% of the United States population.