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ContraVir Hopes To Establish Backbone For Hepatitis B Combo Therapy

 
• By Joseph Haas

Two deals have resulted in the formerly shingles-focused biotech beginning to build an HBV pipeline and look ahead to therapeutic advances similar to those seen in HIV and hepatitis C. But the New Jersey biotech will be competing with some deep-pocketed competitors in the space.

Led by two former Gilead Sciences Inc. executives who played key roles in developing and launching Viread, ContraVir Pharmaceuticals Inc. is reorganizing its scientific advisory board to change the biotech's therapeutic focus from shingles to hepatitis B as it advances a pair of candidates that it thinks could play key roles in next-wave HBV combination therapy, similar to advances seen previously in HIV and hepatitis C.

Existing advisory board member Carol Brosgart, formerly the VP of clinical research at Gilead who oversaw global development of HBV and HIV stalwart Viread (tenofovir disproxil fumarate), moves into the...

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