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SAN DIEGO, CA - January 3, 2003 -- Metabasis Therapeutics, Inc. announced today that Dr. Paul Laikind, Chairman of the Board, President & CEO, will present at the J.P. Morgan H&Q 21st Annual Healthcare Conference in San Francisco on Thursday, January 9, 2003 at 11:00 AM, local time. The presentation will include an update on the company's clinical pipeline including CS-917, a novel gluconeogenesis inhibitor for diabetes that is being studied in patients, Hepavir B, a HepDirect™ prodrug of adefovir that is being studied in the clinic for the treatment of hepatitis B and MB7133, a HepDirect oncolytic that is expected to soon enter the clinic for the treatment of primary liver cancer. Metabasis Therapeutics, Inc. (www.mbasis.com) is a privately held,
biopharmaceutical company that develops proprietary products for
the treatment of human disease with a current focus on liver and
liver-related diseases. The Company employs various resources for
discovering and perfecting new products, is a leader in the field
of nucleoside/nucleotide chemistry and metabolism, and has proprietary
expertise in liver biology and liver-specific drug delivery. Metabasis
has discovered and developed a new class of drugs for treating diabetes
that act to lower liver glucose production in diabetic patients.
The first drug from this program, CS-917, is being developed in
collaboration with Sankyo Co., Ltd. and is currently undergoing
clinical testing. The Company has also developed the HepDirect Prodrug
Technology that allows liver-specific delivery of new and existing
drugs. Two drugs derived from the HepDirect Technology are in development;
a drug for hepatitis B called Hepavir B and a drug for primary liver
cancer called MB7133. Hepavir B is the subject of a partnership
with Ribapharm, Inc. and is currently being evaluated in Phase I
clinical trials. The drug for primary liver cancer is expected to
enter the clinic during the first quarter of 2003. The Company has
approximately 80 employees and occupies state-of-the-art research
facilities in San Diego, California.
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