Hepion Pharmaceuticals’ Rencofilstat Demonstrates Anti-Cancer Activity in Hepatitis C-Associated Cancer Model

- Rencofilstat, but not sofosbuvir or velpatasvir, significantly suppressed tumor growth -

EDISON, N.J., Oct. 25, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hepion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:HEPA), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on Artificial Intelligence (“AI”)-driven therapeutic drug development for the treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (“NASH”), fibrotic diseases, hepatocellular carcinoma (“HCC”), and other chronic diseases, today announced the publication of a new research study in mice, where Hepion’s lead drug candidate, rencofilstat, prevented the growth of liver tumors that occurred as a result of chronic infection with the human hepatitis C virus (“HCV”).

The study was published in the peer-reviewed, open access scientific journal, Viruses, and was conducted by Drs. Winston Stauffer, Philippe Gallay, and colleagues at The Scripps Research Institute (La Jolla, California). Mice were infected with HCV, which caused the development of small liver nodules at around 12 weeks post-infection that progressed to very large tumors by 24 weeks post-infection. Daily rencofilstat treatment was initiated at week 0 or later time points:

• When initiated at week 0, rencofilstat treatment completely prevented HCC development measured at week 30 likely because the drug also blocked HCV infection and therefore eliminated a key driver of HCC development;
• When initiated at week 12, when tumors were in a small nodular stage, rencofilstat treatment similarly resulted in no visible nodules or tumors at week 30, suggesting that rencofilstat was able to completely regress small cancerous nodules; and
• When initiated at week 16, when livers contained many small-to-medium-sized nodules and tumors, rencofilstat treatment resulted in significantly decreased numbers and sizes of tumors (“tumor burden”) measured at week 30, which also indicated preventative or regressive anti-tumor activity.
  

To investigate whether some of rencofilstat’s anti-HCC effects occurred independent of its anti-HCV activity, rencofilstat was compared to the anti-HCV agents sofosbuvir and velpatasvir, which belong to the recently developed direct-acting class of HCV drugs representing billions of dollars in annual sales.

Sofosbuvir, velpatasvir and rencofilstat treatments initiated at week 16 all eliminated HCV infection. However, only rencofilstat decreased tumors when measured at week 30. Sofosbuvir and velpatasvir-treated mice developed the same large tumor burden as mice that received no drug treatment, whereas the tumor burden of rencofilstat-treated mice was 80% lower.