Jay R. Luly, Ph.D., President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Enanta Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ENTA), Expects "Strong, Competitive Data Set in All-Oral Therapy for HCV Genotype 1"

67 WALL STREET, New York - February 20, 2014 - The Wall Street Transcript has just published its 2013 IPOs Report offering a timely review of companies new to the stock market. This special feature contains expert industry commentary through in-depth, detailed interviews with CEOs and senior executives of new public companies. The full issue is available by calling (212) 952-7433 or via The Wall Street Transcript Online.

Topics covered: Initial Public Offerings - IPOs

Companies include: Enanta Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ENTA) and many others.

In the following excerpt from the 2013 IPOs Report, the CEO of Enanta Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ENTA) gives a detailed strategic plan for his company for investors:

TWST: I'd like to start with a brief overview of Enanta's business.

Dr. Luly: Enanta is a biotechnology company focused on infectious disease, and we have a particular focus on hepatitis C, where we have several different programs and multiple partnerships with pharmaceutical companies. We are also focused on serious bacterial resistance problems including MRSA. Those are our main business drivers.

TWST: There is some competition in the hepatitis C sector, what do you see as the advantage that your company has over the approach that Gilead (GILD) is taking for hepatitis C?

Dr. Luly: The competition is not just with Gilead. There are at least a half-dozen pharmaceutical companies in the hepatitis C area: Boehringer Ingelheim, Merck (MRK), BMS (BMY), J&J (JNJ), AbbVie (ABBV), Gilead, Novartis (NVS). Then there are some biotech companies: Vertex (VRTX), Actelion (ALIOF), Idenix (IDIX), Enanta. So lots of big companies and small companies.

The AbbVie/Enanta approach is to conduct one the largest genotype 1 HCV studies designed to provide results within specific patient populations. When data from all the Phase III trials have been released and presented, we should have a very clear understanding of how our regimen works, in which subsets of patients, and we hope this will help physicians make the best treatment choices for their patients. I think it's likely that we'll have a strong, competitive data set in all-oral therapy for HCV genotype 1. What we focused on at Enanta, internally as well as with our partners, is on coming up with new therapies that did not require interferon in the regimen - so called interferon-free or all-oral therapies - because interferon is an injectable, and we wanted all-oral medicines. We and others started aiming for that and actually had quite a bit of success.

The companies now that are the furthest in the lead toward all-orals - especially for the large market in HCV which is genotype 1, a specific form of the virus called genotype 1 or form 1, if you will - that's where the big market is, and all-orals now are in late-stage development aiming at that market. We have our protease inhibitor partnered with AbbVie, which is the pharmaceutical spinout of Abbott Labs. They became an independent company January of last year. So we've been working in partnership with AbbVie since late 2006, over seven years now as partners.

The combination of drugs from the two companies, AbbVie and Enanta, is finishing up Phase III trials. In fact, six registration Phase III trials are effectively completed and data is being readout in topline form right now...

For more of this interview and many others visit the Wall Street Transcript - a unique service for investors and industry researchers - providing fresh commentary and insight through verbatim interviews with CEOs, portfolio managers and research analysts. This special issue is available by calling (212) 952-7433 or via The Wall Street Transcript Online.