{"id":41885,"date":"2025-01-08T14:43:11","date_gmt":"2025-01-08T14:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/?p=41885"},"modified":"2026-07-22T17:14:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T16:14:24","slug":"tune-therapeutics-receives-approval-to-initiate-clinical-trial-in-hong-kong-for-hepb-epigenetic-silencer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/2025\/01\/08\/tune-therapeutics-receives-approval-to-initiate-clinical-trial-in-hong-kong-for-hepb-epigenetic-silencer\/","title":{"rendered":"Tune Therapeutics receives approval to initiate clinical trial\u00a0in Hong Kong for HepB Epigenetic Silencer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>The company\u2019s leading therapeutic candidate, Tune-401,\u00a0has now been approved for clinical trials in both Hong Kong and New Zealand.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Leading epigenetic therapy company Tune Therapeutics will begin a clinical trial in Hong Kong after receiving a Certificate for Clinical Trial from the Hong Kong Department of Health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This marks the second global approval to commence a Phase 1b clinical trial for Tune-401, an investigational epigenetic silencing therapy designed to treat chronic hepatitis B (CHB).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re taking a fresh angle on the battle against chronic hepatitis B,\u201d said Derek Jantz, Chief Scientific Officer, Tune Therapeutics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cCurrent standard-of-care treatments are rarely curative due to the virus mechanism of infection. But by employing epigenetic silencing to target both integrated viral DNA and cccDNA, we are replicating the natural processes observed in spontaneous functional cure and aiming to make that outcome the norm in HBV treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Hong Kong trial will be led by Professor Man-Fung Yuen \u2013 world-renowned hepatologist and Chair Professor of The University of Hong Kong and the Chief of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOver 257 million people are still living with chronic hepatitis B, and worldwide the disease disproportionately impacts Asian and Pacific Islander populations,\u201d said Dr. Yuen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhile early screening and detection is still paramount, this novel epigenetic silencing approach offers new hope for clinicians and could make a major impact in these patient groups in particular.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the&nbsp;World Health Organization, the burden of Hepatitis infection is highest in the Western Pacific Region \u2013 including China, Japan, Cambodia, New Zealand and Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With a parallel clinical trial occurring in Auckland, New Zealand, Tune is focusing on countries that would see the most immediate impact and benefit from a new HBV treatment paradigm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tune&nbsp;shared&nbsp;encouraging preclinical data in November 2024 demonstrating Tune-401\u2019s ability to repress both cccDNA and integrated DNA in target cells and animal models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Armed with its innovative genetic tuning platform (TEMPO), Tune Therapeutics aims to bring gene, cell and regenerative therapies into a new era of human medicine \u2013 expanding their range of application to common, chronic and age-related diseases that are straining healthcare systems and limiting human healthspan on a global scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tune-401 is a first-in-class investigational product candidate for treating Hepatitis B (HBV) infection and utilizes the company\u2019s versatile, modular TEMPO platform to epigenetically silence viral HBV intDNA and cccDNA necessary for sustained HBV infection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lipid nanoparticle technology for Tune-401 has been provided by Acuitas Therapeutics Inc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The company\u2019s leading therapeutic candidate, Tune-401,\u00a0has now been approved for clinical trials in both Hong Kong and New Zealand. Leading epigenetic therapy company Tune Therapeutics will begin a clinical trial in Hong Kong after receiving a Certificate for Clinical Trial from the Hong Kong Department of Health. This marks the second global approval to commence [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":41886,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1463,56,25,55,53,38,44,54],"tags":[157,7982,7983,121,77,1625,7984],"class_list":["post-41885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apac","category-east-asia","category-industry-verticals-healthcare","category-oceania","category-regional-news-newsletter","category-analysis-research","category-top-stories","category-used","tag-apac","tag-clinical-trials","tag-healthtech","tag-hong-kong","tag-new-zealand","tag-research","tag-tune-therapeutics"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41885"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42623,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41885\/revisions\/42623"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}