Ascletis Pharma Inc. announces today the advancement in Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia clinical trial of oral Ganovo and Ritonavir combination therapy, led by Dr. Hongyi CHEN, the director of the Ninth Hospital of Nanchang. Three patients have been discharged from the hospital after such treatment as they are satisfied with the discharge standards under the "Diagnosis and Treatment Program for Novel Coronavirus Infection (Trial Version 6)" issued by the National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China, and other enrolled patients are being treated.

On February 16, 2020, the clinical trial obtained approval from the ethics committee of the Ninth Hospital of Nanchang. The first patient diagnosed with the Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia was enrolled for the treatment of Ganovo and Ritonavir combination therapy on February 17, 2020. Dr. Hongyi CHEN is the director of the first infection department in the Ninth Hospital of Nanchang, and the chairman of the Professional Committee on Infectious Diseases of the Jiangxi Association of Integrative Medicine.

Ganovo, an oral Hepatitis C virus (HCV) protease inhibitor, was approved by the National Medical Products Administration for market launch in June 2018, which is used to treat chronic Hepatitis C. Ganovo is the first Direct-acting Anti-viral Agent (DAA) developed by a domestic company in China and has been selected as a National Science and Technology Major Project for "Innovative Drug Development".

Source CNN