New drug looks promising
New drug boosts bird flu survival in animals
Source: Reuters
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent WASHINGTON, Sept 30 (Reuters) - A drug being developed to fight bird flu and seasonal flu helps animals to survive H5N1 avian flu infection, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc. said on Saturday. The drug, called peramivir, protected mice and ferrets, which are considered the species closest to humans in terms of susceptibility to influenza.
The result, reported to the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy in San Francisco, should boost the company's efforts to win U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to treat infected humans with the drug. The FDA accepts data on two animal species in lieu of human data in certain cases when deadly infectious agents are involved. Peramivir is still in experimental trials but is considered the next-line drug to fight influenza of all sorts, after Tamiflu and Relenza.
Experts want to have several antivirals to choose from in fighting flu because the virus mutates quickly, and because no drug has been completely effective. A team at Birmingham, Alabama-based BioCryst and at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston used a high-security lab to test whether the drug could prevent deaths from H5N1 infection in 41 mice and 20 ferrets.
'VERY EFFECTIVE'
A single injection allowed 70 percent of the mice to survive, and five days of injections boosted survival to 80 percent. Only 36 percent of untreated mice survived, the researchers told the meeting. Among the ferrets, 86 percent survived when injected for five days, versus 43 percent of untreated animals. "They found at blood levels that we can achieve very easily in humans, the drug is very effective at protecting animals from death," Dr. Charles Bugg, chairman and chief executive officer of BioCryst, said in a telephone interview.
On Friday the company showed the drug could be safely given to people in high doses, although there is no ethical way to infect people with H5N1 and see how well they survive. H5N1 mainly affects birds but experts fear it could mutate into a strain capable of killing millions of people in a global pandemic. It has killed 148 people out of 251 infected in 10 countries since 2003. At least half of infected patients have died, and there is no vaccine yet.
Immediate treatment with Roche and Gilead Sciences Inc's Tamiflu, also known as oseltamivir, appear to save many patients and Tamiflu is now routinely given to bird flu victims. Relenza, made by GlaxoSmithkline under license from Australia's Biota , is an inhaled drug that also appears to treat both types of flu.
The result, reported to the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy in San Francisco, should boost the company's efforts to win U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to treat infected humans with the drug. The FDA accepts data on two animal species in lieu of human data in certain cases when deadly infectious agents are involved. Peramivir is still in experimental trials but is considered the next-line drug to fight influenza of all sorts, after Tamiflu and Relenza.
Experts want to have several antivirals to choose from in fighting flu because the virus mutates quickly, and because no drug has been completely effective. A team at Birmingham, Alabama-based BioCryst and at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston used a high-security lab to test whether the drug could prevent deaths from H5N1 infection in 41 mice and 20 ferrets.
'VERY EFFECTIVE'
A single injection allowed 70 percent of the mice to survive, and five days of injections boosted survival to 80 percent. Only 36 percent of untreated mice survived, the researchers told the meeting. Among the ferrets, 86 percent survived when injected for five days, versus 43 percent of untreated animals. "They found at blood levels that we can achieve very easily in humans, the drug is very effective at protecting animals from death," Dr. Charles Bugg, chairman and chief executive officer of BioCryst, said in a telephone interview.
On Friday the company showed the drug could be safely given to people in high doses, although there is no ethical way to infect people with H5N1 and see how well they survive. H5N1 mainly affects birds but experts fear it could mutate into a strain capable of killing millions of people in a global pandemic. It has killed 148 people out of 251 infected in 10 countries since 2003. At least half of infected patients have died, and there is no vaccine yet.
Immediate treatment with Roche
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posted by Nancy Moreno @ 12:36 PM
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