New Hepatitis C Data from Boehringer Ingelheim HCV Portfolio to Be Presented at EASL

INGELHEIM, Germany - Monday, March 14th 2011 [ME NewsWire]


(BUSINESS WIRE)-- For Non- U.S. Media only

New data from the Boehringer Ingelheim hepatitis C virus (HCV) portfolio will be presented in oral scientific sessions at the International Liver CongressTM 2011, the 46th Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), taking place 30 March-3 April in Berlin, Germany. The data will include final results from SILEN-C1 and SILEN-C2, two Phase IIb studies evaluating one of Boehringer Ingelheim’s investigational compounds for Hepatitis C treatment, the once-daily, oral protease inhibitor BI 201335 in combination with the current standard-of-care (pegylated-interferon and ribavirin).

Oral presentations (Friday, 1 April, 2011; Parallel Session: HCV Drug Development, Hall 1)

* SILEN-C1: Sustained Virologic Response (SVR) and safety of BI201335 combined with peginterferon alfa-2a and ribavirin (P/R) in treatment-naïve patients with chronic genotype 1 HCV infection (Abstract 60. M. Sulkowski, et al. 16:00h - 16:15h)
* SILEN-C2: Sustained Virologic Response (SVR) and safety of BI201335 combined with peginterferon alfa-2a and ribavirin (P/R) in chronic HCV genotype-1 patients with non-response to P/R (Abstract 66. M. Sulkowski, et al. 17:30h - 17:45h)

Boehringer Ingelheim is continuing its long heritage in virology and is dedicated to developing new medicines to improve treatment for HCV patients. BI 201335 is part of a growing HCV portfolio that is being investigated with the aim of identifying a simpler HCV cure, overcoming the challenges of current treatments.

Additional HCV studies to be presented at EASL

* SVR and Pharmacokinetics of the HCV protease inhibitor BI201335 with PegIFN/RBV in HCV genotype-1 patients with compensated liver cirrhosis and non-response to previous PegIFN/RBV (Poster 1231. S. Pol, et al.; Saturday, 2 April, 2011, 09:00h - 18:00h)
* Mechanisms of isolated unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia induced by the HCV NS3/4A protease inhibitor BI201335 (Poster 1236. R. Sane, et al.;Saturday, 2 April, 2011, 09:00h - 18:00h)
* BI201335 Pharmacokinetics and early effect on viral load in HCV genotype-1 patients (Poster 1249. C. Yong, et al.;Saturday, April 2, 2011, 09:00h - 18:00h)
* Preclinical Characterization of the hepatitis C virus NS5B polymerase non-nucleoside inhibitor BILB 1941 (Poster 1215. G. Kukolj et. al.; Friday, 30 March, 2011, 09:00h - 18:00h)

The abstracts can be accessed through the EASL website, www.easl.eu.

For more information on BI’s hepatitis portfolio, please visit www.boehringer-ingelheim.comand follow us on Twitter. www.twitter.com/boehringer.

Boehringer Ingelheim

The Boehringer Ingelheim group is one of the world’s 20 leading pharmaceutical companies. Headquartered in Ingelheim, Germany, it operates globally with 142 affiliates in 50 countries and more than 41,500 employees. Since it was founded in 1885, the family-owned company has been committed to researching, developing, manufacturing and marketing novel products of high therapeutic value for human and veterinary medicine.

Within the company’s global research network, Virology is one of the seven R&D areas with focus on Hepatitis C.

In 2009, Boehringer Ingelheim posted net sales of 12.7 billion euro (US $17.7 billion) while spending 21% of net sales in its largest business segment, Prescription Medicines, on research and development.
Contacts

Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH

Julia Meyer-Kleinmann

Director Corporate Communications

Phone: + 49 - 6132 – 77 8271

E-mail: press@boehringer-ingelheim.com