Vironova Medical’s anti-influenza candidate

Our anti-influenza candidate VNFC045 targets the relatively conserved internal Nucleoprotein NP, thereby expected to be less sensitive to viral mutations and effective towards more strains.

Influenza - a constantly changing virus

Vaccination is used for prevention of influenza infections. However, protection is not complete due to a high mutation rate and fast evolution of Influenza. In case of a new pandemic, existing vaccines confer little or no protection. This results in a great need for anti-viral therapies.

Currently, Neuraminidase inhibitors such as Tamiflu, are the golden standard treatment of influenza infection. M2 proton channel inhibitors represent another class that is used to a lesser extent. New drugs, including Xofluza  and Pimodivir, targeting the Polymerase complex, show promising results and it remains to be seen how these compounds stand against the challenge of viral mutations and resistance. The constant evolution of influenza will always call for novel and more effective antiviral therapies to combat reoccurring infections.

INFLUENZA IS ESTIMATED TO RESULT IN ABOUT 3 TO 5 MILLION CASES OF SEVERE ILLNESS, AND UP TO 500,000 DEATHS WORLDWIDE EACH YEAR.

In the development of anti-influenza drugs, our thionation process and reagent was used, creating our lead candidate VNFC045. It shows antiviral activity against currently circulating influenza strains, and is now being further investigated in pre-clinical studies.