Portfolio News
Eiger licenses Stanford hepatitis technology
San Francisco Business Times
Ron Leuty
5 August 2009
Eiger BioPharmaceuticals Inc. licensed exclusive worldwide rights to a hepatitis C virus technology developed in the Stanford University lab of its founder, Dr. Jeffrey Glenn.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The privately held Palo Alto company, which earlier this year raised $7.1 million in a Series A financing from InterWest Partners and Vivo Ventures, said the technology could disrupt the virus' ability to resist certain drugs.
Specifically, the technology is aimed at a non-structural protein, called NS4B, that binds to the virus' RNA and is required to replicate the virus.
"These virus-specific agents in development at Eiger possess the promise of more effective, oral drugs that can be essential components of all future cocktails for (hepatitis C) therapy," Glenn said.
Hepatitis C infection affects more than 150 million people worldwide and can lead to serious liver disease.
David Cory is president and CEO of Eiger.
