Agouron sets trial for cold virus inhibitor
Reuters, Thursday, December 03, 1998 at 09:46
NEW YORK, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Agouron Pharmaceuticals Inc.
(NASDAQ:AGPH) said Thursday it would begin a Phase I trial in
England this month to fight the common cold virus using a
protease inhibitor that it has developed.
The company spokeswoman, Donna Nichols, told Reuters the
trial will probably last six months to a year employing the
company's compound AG7080, which she said inhibits the
so-called 3C protease that the Rhinovirus needs to replicate.
The Rhinovirus causes the common cold.
She said details of the trial have not been divulged but
Agouron owns all rights to the compound, which it designed and
developed.
She said the compound is an intranasal formulation that has
finished toxicology studies. "Clinical trials will begin in
England this month," she said at the BancBoston Robertson
Stephens medical conference in New York.
Agouron, based in La Jolla, California, is best known for
Viracept, its market-leading protease inhibitor against the HIV
virus that causes AIDS.
Nichols said the Rhinovirus protease is essential for
making mature viruses. "Protease cleaves a polyprotein so that
the mature rhinovirus can be expelled from one cell and invade
other healthy cells," Nichols said.
Copyright 1998, Reuters News Service |
