Antios, months after series B, raises a further $75M to fuel pursuit of hepatitis B cure

Antios Therapeutics is going full throttle in pursuit of a curative hepatitis B therapy, raising $75 million just months after its previous round to accelerate phase 2b development of its lead prospect.

The drug candidate, ATI-2173, is a twist on clevudine, an antiviral that Pharmasset took into phase 3 more than a decade ago. Pharmasset stopped the program in response to cases of muscle weakness in long-term users of clevudine, prompting it to pivot to the hepatitis C work that landed it an $11 billion takeover by Gilead and spawned a mega-blockbuster franchise spearheaded by Sovaldi.