VALEANT REPORTS PRADEFOVIR DATA

Valeant Pharmaceuticals has reported 48-week results from a Phase II study evaluating the safety and efficacy of its oral antiviral compound, pradefovir, for the treatment of compensated chronic hepatitis B that show a significant impact on viral load reduction.

Pradefovir is a prodrug of adefovir that uses the company's HepDirect technology, which enables higher concentrations of the drug in the liver, the primary site of hepatitis B viral replication.

The study is an open-label, randomized, multiple dose trial with 242 patients.