US-based BioCryst Pharmaceuticals has received an additional $2.4m funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to carry dose ranging efficacy study of an intramuscular formulation of BCX4430 in non-human primates to treat Ebola disease.
The company said that plans are in place to start the study within the next few weeks, enabling the understanding of BCX4430’s potential as a treatment for Ebola disease in humans.
Go deeper with GlobalData
In September 2013, BioCryst secured a $22m contract from NIAID, part of the National Institutes of Health, to conduct the efficacy study.
The BCX4430 development contract was increased to $24.4m with the additional funding, which will be provided in whole or in part with Federal funds from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services.
BCX4430 is an RNA dependent-RNA polymerase inhibitor, which showed broad-spectrum activity against more than 20 RNA viruses in nine different families, including filoviruses, togaviruses, bunyaviruses, arenaviruses, paramyxoviruses, coronaviruses and flaviviruses.
The company is developing BCX4430 by collaborating with US Government Agencies following the Animal Rule regulatory pathway.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalDataBioCryst has designed the BSAV research programme to develop broad-spectrum parenteral and oral therapeutics to treat virus-related diseases.
In the first half of August, NIAID exercised additional options for BioCryst to advance the development of BCX4430 as a treatment for haemorrhagic fever viruses.
Image: Colourised transmission electron micrograph (TEM) revealed some of the ultrastructural morphology displayed by an Ebola virus virion. Photo: courtesy of CDC/Cynthia Goldsmith.
