AiCuris announced today that its novel HCMV inhibitor AIC246 has been used successfully to treat a patient with multi-organ HCMV disease caused by multi-resistant virus. Details will be presented at the 48th IDSA meeting on October 23, presentation number LB-38.
"This is the first case, where HCMV disease has been treated and resolved the infection of the lung, the colon and the eyes under AIC246 therapy", says Susanne Stoelben, the responsible AiCuris physician for the drug. "While we designed AIC246 to be resistance-breaking and already knew from pre-clinical studies that it works against viruses resistant against all marketed drugs, we are very pleased to see this powerful result in a very difficult clinical situation" adds AiCuris CEO, Prof. Helga Rübsamen-Schaeff. In a previous phase IIa trial, the compound had already shown very good activity against multi-resistant HCMV in a pre-emptive setting, in which no disease had been present, yet.
The compound currently is being tested in a phase IIb trial, in which stem cell recipients at risk for developing HCMV viraemia and disease are being treated prophylactically after transplantation. "The trial is well underway in the US and Germany and we are now looking forward to see, if the drug will also show powerful suppression of viraemia in a prophylactic setting" comments Dr. Holger Zimmermann, CSO of AiCuris.
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