Prolonged RNA interference therapy with ARC-520 Injection in treatment naïve, HBeAg positive and negative patients with chronic HBV results in significant reductions of HBs antigen Man-Fung Yuen * 1, Kevin Liu 1, Henry L. Chan 2, Bruce D. Given 3, Thomas Schluep 3, James Hamilton 3, Ching-Lung Lai 1, Stephen A. Locarnini 4, Johnson Y. Lau 1, 5, Carlo Ferrari 6, Robert G. Gish 7, 8 1 The University of Hong Kong, 2 The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China, 3 Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Pasadena, United States, 4 Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, Victoria, Australia, 5 Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China, 6 University of Parma, Parma, Italy, 7 Stanford University, Palo Alto, 8 Hepatitis B Foundation, Doylestown, United States
Disclosures Grant: Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals 2
Simplified theory of an HBV RNAi therapeutic Silence Entire HBV Genome sirna 1. HBsAg Theory Reducing HBsAg enables host immune system derepression and long term control of virus 2. Destabilizing Viral Function Silencing all antigens could destabilize normal viral function Enable host immune system de-repression and long term control of virus NUCs Target ONLY Viral DNA 3
RNA interference therapeutic ARC-520 for chronic HBV infection Melittin-like Designed to reduce all transcripts from HBV cccdna ARC-520 Excipient Hepatocyte-targeted endosomal escape agent to enhance sirna delivery HBV Transcript Map cccdna ARC-520 API Mixture of 2 cholesterolconjugated sirnas in solution As of November 2016, the NAG-MLP containing drug platform was discontinued due to animal toxicology findings, not due to safety signals in humans. 4
Previous data from single dose cohort led to new understanding of role of integrated HBV DNA Log HBsAg reduction from baseline 0.2 0.0-0.2-0.4-0.6-0.8-1.0-1.2-1.4 HBsAg reduction after 4 mg/kg ARC-520 dose Day 0 20 40 60 80-1.6 PBO HBeAg neg., NUC exp. HBeAg pos., NUC exp. HBeAg neg., NUC naive Transitional, NUC naive HBeAg pos., NUC naive Log HBcrAg reduction from baseline 0.2 0.0-0.2-0.4-0.6-0.8-1.0-1.2-1.4-1.6 PBO HBcrAg reduction after 4 mg/kg ARC-520 dose Day 0 20 40 60 80 HBeAg neg., NUC exp. HBeAg pos., NUC exp. HBeAg neg., NUC naive (n = 1) HBeAg pos., NUC naive HBeAg status and previous NUC affect HBsAg response HBcrAg data confirms potent antigen reduction in all patients M.-F. Yuen, H.L.Y. Chan, K. Liu, B.D. Given, T. Schluep, J. Hamilton, C.-L. Lai, S.A. Locarnini, J.Y.N. Lau, C. Ferrari, R.G. Gish. (2016) J Hepatology 64, (Suppl 2): THU-193 5
Differential HBsAg reduction also observed in untreated chimps HBeAg- 0.5-0.9 log 10 reduction at nadir HBeAg+ 1.5-2.7 log 10 reduction at nadir HBeAg positive responded better than HBeAg negative chimps 6
HBV transcripts differ between HBeAg+ and HBeAg- Chimps PacBio Single Molecule Real-Time (SMRT) Sequencing 2.4kb S 2.1kb S S ORFs DR2 DR1 HBV Poly(A) signal ARC-520 sirnas HBeAg+ (A2A004) HBeAg+ Most S transcripts terminate near HBV poly(a) signal as expected HBeAg- (88A010) HBV-aligning HBV non-aligning HBeAg- Majority of S transcripts are fused at the 3 end to chimp sequence Fusion points typically between DR2 and DR1as expected if transcripts arose from integrated HBV dsldna S transcripts in HBeAg- chimps often lack target sites for ARC-520 7
Study design Heparc-2001 Treatment naïve chronic HBV patients who previously received a single IV dose of 4 mg/kg ARC-520 and started daily entecavir on the same day were eligible (cohort 7) 8 CHB (5 HBeAg-neg, 3 HBeAg-pos) were enrolled to receive 4 mg/kg ARC-520 once every 4 weeks with daily entecavir Viral DNA and antigen knockdown (KD) were measured at regular intervals qhbsag HB core-related antigen (qhbcrag) qhbeag in HBeAg-pos 8
Tolerability Mean number of ARC-520 doses in the was 7.6 with a range of 5 to 9 7/8 patients reported at least one mild AE No AEs were rated as serious, severe or caused withdrawal Most frequent AEs were mild fever and mild flu-like symptoms Adverse Event N Severity Fever 5 mild Flu-like symptoms 5 mild Rash 2 mild Influenza 1 mild Haematuria 1 mild Procedural pain 1 mild Arthralgia 1 mild Chest Discomfort 1 mild Headache 1 mild Running nose 1 mild Epigastric discomfort 1 mild Malaise 1 mild Temporomandibular joint pain 1 mild 9
HBsAg reduction in HBeAg positive patients HBsAg [IU/mL] 000 00 0 10 Extension 0 20 40 60 80 01-7981 E Pos 01-7982 E Pos 01-7985 E Pos First dose of Last dose of In 3/3 patients HBsAg did not return to baseline after single dose of ARC-520 Effect persisted for >30 weeks Multi-dose re-challenge further reduced HBsAg in all patients HBeAg pos patients showed immediate reductions in HBsAg with 1 st and 2 nd doses Mean max -2.2 Log10 Max observed -3.1 Log10 High levels of HBsAg knockdown achieved with ARC-520 Similar to observations in HBeAg positive chimps 10
HBsAg reduction in HBeAg negative patients HBsAg [IU/mL] 00 0 10 1 0.1 Extension 0 20 40 60 80 01-7988 E Neg 01-7986 E Neg 01-7983 E Neg 01-7973 E neg 01-7974 E Neg First dose of Last dose of Multi-dose re-challenge further reduced HBsAg in all patients HBeAg neg patients showed delayed reductions in HBsAg HBeAg neg patients showed lower reductions in HBsAg Mean max -0.7 Log10 Max observed -1.4 Log10 Lower HBsAg response consistent with findings of a higher fraction of HBsAg from integrated DNA in HBeAg negative patients 11
Case study 1: HBeAg positive patient HBsAg [IU/mL] 000 00 0 10 1 Multi-dose 0 0 50 80 60 40 20 ALT [IU/L] HBsAg - ALT HBsAg [IU/mL] ALT First dose of Last dose of HBeAg [PEIU/mL] 000 00 0 10 1 LLOQ Multi-dose 10 0 50 0000 000 00 0 HBcrAg [ku/ml] HBeAg - HBcrAg HBcrAg [ku/ml] HBeAg [PEIU/mL] First dose of Last dose of HBV DNA [IU/mL] 10 8 10 7 10 6 10 5 10 4 10 3 10 2 LLOQ Multi-dose 0 50 HBV DNA 10 10 10 9 HBV DNA [IU/mL] 3.1 Log10 HBsAgreduction from baseline 3.6 Log10 HBcrAgand 4.2 Log10 HBeAgreduction Rapid reduction of HBV DNA to BLOQ ALT elevation after initial antigen reductions Antigen decrease during ARC-520 treatment holiday consistent with increased immune control of HBV virus 12
Case study 2: HBeAg positive patient HBsAg [IU/mL] 000 00 0 Multi-dose 0 0 50 80 60 40 20 ALT [IU/L] HBsAg - ALT HBsAg [IU/mL] ALT First dose of Last dose of HBcrAg [IU/mL] 10 7 10 6 10 5 10 4 10 3 Multi-dose 0 50 00 0 HBeAg [PEIU/mL] HBeAg - HBcrAg HBcrAg [ku/ml] HBeAg [PEIU/mL] First dose of Last dose of HBV DNA [IU/mL] 10 9 10 8 10 7 10 6 10 5 10 4 10 3 10 2 LLOQ Multi-dose 0 50 HBV DNA 10 10 HBV DNA [IU/mL] First dose of Last dose of 1.8 Log10 HBsAgreduction from baseline 1.1 Log10 HBcrAgand 1.6 Log10 HBeAgreduction Biphasic reduction of HBV DNA by 7.4 Log10 ALT elevations coinciding with antigen and DNA reductions HBsAg and HBeAg did not return to baseline after single dose ARC-520, consistent with increased immune control of HBV virus 13
Case study 3: HBeAg negative patient HBsAg [IU/mL] HBV DNA [IU/mL] 10 1 0.1 0 0 0 50 Multi-dose Multi-dose 00 10 80 60 40 20 ALT [IU/L] HBsAg - ALT HBsAg [IU/mL] ALT First dose of Last dose of HBV DNA - HBcrAg HBcrAg [ku/ml] HBV DNA [IU/mL] HBcrAg [ku/ml] 1.4 Log10 HBsAg reduction from baseline to less than 1 IU/mL Delayed HBsAgresponse HBcrAgBLOQ throughout the study Rapid reduction of HBV DNA to undetectable levels with ARC-520 plus entecavir Antigen decrease during treatment holiday consistent with increased immune control of HBV virus LLOQ LLOQ 0 50 14
Summary ARC-520 was well tolerated ARC-520 + ETV were effective at rapidly suppressing HBV DNA 1 A single dose of ARC-520 together with ETV reduced HBsAg for up to 44 weeks Multiple doses of ARC-520 resulted in additional HBsAg reductions in all patients, as much as 3.1 logs HBeAg positive patients showed larger, multi-log reductions in HBsAg, while HBeAg negative patients showed lower reductions with delayed onset, consistent with previously reported results in chimpanzees All HBeAg positive and some HBeAg negative patients showed ALT elevations coincident with antigen reductions that may indicate increased immune control of the HBV virus 15
Conclusions RNA interference as a mechanism can rapidly and deeply reduce all viral antigens for which we currently have assays and, as previously shown in mice, RNAi appears to synergize with NUCs to rapidly lower serum levels of HBV DNA RNAi is a strong candidate to synergize with other DAAs acting on viral substrates and serve as a cornerstone of combination therapies for HBV 16
Acknowledgments The University of Hong Kong Frank YF Lam Michael KL Ko Loey LY Mak Elvis WP To Wai-Kay Seto Danny Ka-Ho Wong Ringo Chi-Hang Wu John Chi-Hang Yuen Charles Tze-Kin Cheng The Chinese University of Hong Kong Vincent WS Wong Grace LH Wong Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory Kathy Jackson Renae Walsh Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals Diamond Martin Christine Wooddell Caroline LaPlaca Davis 17