(Yicai) Aug. 12 -- Shares in Fujian Cosunter Pharmaceutical surged by the exchange-imposed limit today after the Chinese developer of prototype drugs said that its novel hepatitis B treatment demonstrated a clear inhibition effect on the hepatitis B virus during the second stage of clinical trials.

Cosunter’s share price was trading up 20 percent at CNY21.36 (USD3) as of 1.20 p.m. today.

GST-HG141 has been shown to have a noticeable inhibition effect on patients with a low amount of the hepatitis B virus, also known as HBV, in their blood, the Fuzhou-based firm said today, citing the results of the second stage of clinical trials, which were led by Niu Junqi from the First Hospital of Jilin University. The results support its continuation to the third and final stage of clinical tests.

Ninety patients took part in the clinical trial and were given the drug together with nucleoside analogues medicines for six months. More than 80 percent of them logged a drop in the HBV DBA levels in their blood to below the detectable level, far less than the 32.1 percent in the control group, which only used nucleoside analogues drugs, Cosunter said. The performance of the drug is also stable without fluctuations.

Data collection and collation have been finished and the complete report will be made public soon, the firm said. The results will also be submitted to the Center for Drug Evaluation under the country’s National Medical Products Administration in the near future.

GST-HG141 works differently from other hepatitis B medicines available on the market and will hopefully become a world-leading first-in-class drug for the oral treatment of HBV worldwide, it added.

Cosunter started clinical trials of GST-HG141 in November 2019. GST-HG141 is a Type-1 anti-HBV new drug whose mechanism is different from that of other nucleoside analogues medicines, it said at the time. There are not yet any medicines available worldwide with a similar drug target, paving the way for it to be green lit to enter global markets.

Editor: Kim Taylor