Hep C treatment targeted

The US subsidiary of homegrown drug discovery group Biota Holdings (ASX: BTA) has announced plans to focus on treatments for hepatitis C virus (HCV).

Biota, based in Carlsbad, California, said it would apply its nucleotide chemistry expertise and proprietary drug discovery technology on the search for HCV therapies.

It said it would also use its N.MAX Drug Discovery platform to look for new treatments for chronic viral infections, antibiotic resistant bacterial infections and cancer.

The company's technology involves a small molecule drug discovery process based on a matrix screening system.

In its statement, the company said the discovery process allowed simultaneous screening of therapeutically validated target enzymes or receptors against a panel of proprietary copies of substrates or ligands specific to the selected targets.

Through this process the company expects to rapidly identify high quality new inhibitors, which could then be improved where necessary through chemical modifications.

Biota has already filed eight patents using this approach.

It said it intended to set up research collaborations with other companies as well as developing products specifically for its own portfolio.