REHOVOT, Israel - XTL Biopharmaceuticals Ltd. and Switzerland's F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. signed an agreement to evaluate Roche therapeutics for hepatitis C virus using XTL's TrimeraXTL system.

The system enables a mouse to carry human liver fragments infected with hepatitis C virus, overcoming the lack of animal susceptibility to hepatitis C infection that has severely limited testing of promising new drugs. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

"Our TrimeraXTL-HCV disease model offers drug development companies a breakthrough in vivo system able to significantly accelerate the proof and thus commercialization of new drugs to treat this serious infectious disease, responsible for thousands of deaths annually in the U.S. alone," XTL President and CEO Martin Becker told BioWorld International.

XTL, of Rehovot, also recently initiated a multinational Phase I clinical trial in hepatitis B patients using its lead drug candidate, XTL001, a combination of two fully human anti-HBV monoclonal antibodies developed utilizing the TrimeraXTL technology. - Rachelle H.B. Fishman