potentially important times, page-38

From an article around June 2008:




'The Australian anti-infective firm Avexa
has shifted the focus of its drug discovery
alliance with China’s Targetdrug away
from HIV and towards hepatitis C, where
it sees significant unmet medical need.
The two companies will work together
to develop inhibitors of hepatitis C viral
replication, although Avexa would not
divulge the structure or precise target of
the drug candidates. “We don’t want to
reveal too much at the moment, but can
say that these are novel,” CEO Dr Julian
Chick commented to Scrip.
Melbourne-based Avexa has already
been working with Targetdrug, a private
drug discovery firm based in Shanghai,
on CCR5 inhibitors for HIV, under a
2006 deal that gave Avexa an exclusive
option to global rights (outside China) to
the lead compound, nifeviroc. Dr Chick
stressed that the decision to put this on
the back burner for the time being was
not prompted by any problems with the
programme, “which itself is going very
well”, but rather a desire to see how the
competitive field pans out in terms of
regulatory approach and clinical adoption.
The class has seen some problems, with
GlaxoSmithKline’s aplaviroc (licensed from
Ono) being dropped at the Phase II stage
due to liver toxicity concerns in 2005, for
example. Pfizer was the first to market with
the launch of maraviroc (as Selzentry) in the
US last September, while Schering-Plough
is among the other contenders in clinical
development with vicriviroc.
Nifeviroc is structurally unrelated to
failed CCR5 blockers and Dr Chick said
his understanding was that Targetdrug
intends to keep taking the compound
forward. The new hepatitis C alliance
will see Avexa gain similar worldwide
rights outside China to all Targetdrug’s
programmes in the field, although Dr
Chick said it was too early to disclose
likely timings for the selection of a lead
candidate and clinical trials. He pointed to
the World Health Organization’s estimate
of 180 million infections worldwide,
and to the fact that only half of patients
benefit from current therapy. Datamonitor
estimates that the hepatitis C market will
grow to $8.8 billion in 2015.
Avexa also has in-house research
programmes on antibiotics and HIV
integrase inhibitors, for which it has now
identified lead compounds, and is also
enrolling patients in an international
Phase III trial with apricitabine, the
nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor
for HIV/AIDS it acquired from Shire.
Recruitment for the first phase of this
programme is expected to complete in the
third quarter at around 65 sites, including
in North America and Europe.'

Hope this info helps. It is difficult trying to work out what AVX is all about. There seems to be two main areas of focus: HIV and HCV (Hepatitis C Virus). Under the HIV focus there are the suite of drugs being developed - ATC, VRI & HIV Integrase.