Biota awarded up to US$8.5m to develop LANI/FLUNET compounds
Australian antiviral drug development company Biota has been awarded the first US$2.4m instalment of a total amount of up to US$8.5m by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, an institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Australian antiviral drug development company Biota has been awarded the first US$2.4m instalment of a total amount of up to US$8.5m by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, an institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The award is to develop a class of long-acting neuraminidase inhibitors (LANI), called FLUNET. This funding is in addition to a US$5.6m NIH grant awarded in 2004 to develop the nebulised form of CS-8958.
The FLUNET compounds are dimeric inhibitors based on the molecular shape of zanamivir. The funding, over four years, will bring FLUNET through pre-clinical development and ready for the commencement of human clinical trials.
The FLUNET compounds provide an expansion to the LANI pipeline and also act as potential back-ups to the lead compound, CS-8958. Both FLUNET and CS-8958 are co-owned with Sankyo, of Japan, and belong to a second generation, or long-acting, group of neuraminidase inhibitors. LANIs offer potency and/or duration of action, which confers particular advantages for the pandemic influenza stockpiling market.
All these compounds appear to offer the potential for a single dose for treatment or once weekly dose for prophylaxis. Pre-clinical studies have demonstrated that FLUNET has a higher potency and longer duration of action than the currently marketed influenza antivirals, Tamiflu and Relenza, according to Biota. CS-8958 and FLUNET are two radically different classes of compounds and achieve their long acting potency by quite different mechanisms of action.