"There is clearly a need to develop new antiviral drugs that can address unmet medical needs in virology. For example, there is no drug on the market that can treat the Marburg virus, which has killed over 100 people in Angola in the current epidemic. Another example is the need to enhance our arsenal against new strains of influenza such as the avian flu," said Michel Bazinet, CEO of REPLICor.
The CDC and the WHO currently consider an influenza pandemic as one of the most important threats to mankind. Another important problem is the development of resistant strains of viruses to currently available drugs. The broad spectrum antiviral drug has the potential to address many of these issues.
REPLICor has demonstrated in vitro efficacy against 12 different families of viruses out of 18 families affecting humans. It has also proven efficacy against many viruses including HIV, hepatitis B and herpes viruses. REP 9 has been shown to be well tolerated and to have significant efficacy in vivo in animal models of 6 different viral infections suggesting that it may have significant efficacy in humans too.
REPLICor's broad-spectrum antiviral drug addresses medical needs in large markets. The antiviral market for HIV is $5Billion (€3.9 billion), for HSV $1.3Billion and for HBV approximately $1Billion. The current market for RSV is over $800Million but would be above $1Billion if a safe effective drug were available for therapy. The current therapy, palivizumab, is used mainly as prophylaxis.
The current market for influenza is relatively small but is expected to be huge once a highly effective drug becomes available. The other viruses represent emerging markets that will grow in parallel with the discovery of effective drugs
REPLICor will be presenting 3 papers regarding the activity of its broad spectrum antiviral drug at the 18th International Conference on Antiviral Research in Barcelona, Spain, April 10-14, 2005. Each presentation will be focused on the in vitro and in vivo results demonstrating the efficacy of REP 9 within a specific viral family.
"These presentations provide an opportunity for REPLICor to introduce REP 9 to the international scientific community involved with antiviral research. This could result in the establishment of important collaborations for the future development of our drug," said Andrew Vaillant, chief scientific officer at REPLICor.
Hemorrhagic fevers (Ebola, Marburg and Lassa Fever) are high priority viruses identified as bioterror threats and for which there is currently no drug available for therapy.
Infected patients are treated using antiviral drugs ribavirin, a drug commonly used in treatment of hemorrhagic fevers, that acts as an RNA mutagen on the virion particles. A new drug therapy for Ebola haemorrhagic fever has shown early promise in laboratory studies and is currently being evaluated further at the National Institute of Health.
The drug, Cyanovirin-N (CV-N), a cyanobacterial lectin, is a potent viral entry inhibitor currently under development as a microbicide against a broad spectrum of enveloped viruses. CV-N was originally identified as a highly active anti-HIV agent and later, as a virucidal agent against other unrelated enveloped viruses such as Ebola, and possibly other viruses.