Ascletis Pharma

Ascletis Pharma is a biotechnology company that develops and discovers anti-viral drugs and treatments for cancer and fatty liver disease. Ascletis is a joint venture between entrepreneurs in the U.S. and China.

Ascletis’s Ganovo, an oral inhibitor of Hepatitis C protease and ritonavir a protease inhibitor from AbbVie were used in combination in a clinical trial at the Ninth Hospital of Nanchang, China, led by Dr. Hongyi Chen, for treatment of COVID-19. Three patients were discharged after the treatment as of February 27, 2020. Ganovo received approval from China’s National Medical Products Administration in June, 2018 for treatment of Hepatitis C. The company’s protease inhibitor ASC09 is also in clinical trials in combination with other drugs for treatment of COVID-19.

COVID-19

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, Ascletis Pharma has announced that they are treating three patients treated with Ganovo plus Ritonavir as part of a novel coronavirus pneumonia clinical trial that occured in China and were dischared from the hospital. Ganovo is a oral inhibitor of Hepatitis C virus and is approved by the FDA to treat HIV infections in people. The company looks to work with the patients that were discharged to develop anti-viral drugs to be used in clinical studies on the treatment of HCP.