Evolva announces pre-clinical efficacy data with EV-077 in influenza
Evolva Holding SA announced the results of pre-clinical studies that demonstrate the efficacy of EV-077 in the prophylaxis and treatment of influenza. In addition to the development of EV-077 for cardio-renal indications, Evolva has (partly under its existing program with US Defense Threat Reduction Agency) been investigating a novel anti-viral property of this dual thromboxane receptor antagonist and thromboxane synthase inhibitor. Many viruses, upon infecting a host, cause an increase in prostanoids. This impairs the host’s immune response and thus helps the virus survive and prosper in the host.
EV-077 has been studied in pre-clinical models of influenza A, administered orally twice daily starting one day before exposure to the virus, and also one hour and one day after exposure. Oseltamivir (Tamiflu®, Roche) served as positive control, and was also used in combination with EV-077.
In vivoprophylactic studies demonstrated that EV-077 reduced clinical disease scores in a similar manner to Tamiflu®. However, when treatment started after overt clinical signs (1 day post-exposure), EV-077 was more efficacious than Tamiflu® in reducing lung consolidation (20 vs. 30%), viral titers (75 vs. 250 pfu/lung) and clinical disease scores (70 vs. 30% reduction). In a second gold standard model of influenza, the reduction in lung consolidation was also more pronounced with EV-077 than with Tamiflu®. Moreover, in both models, the combination of Tamiflu® with EV-077 provided added benefits over each treatment alone on all parameters tested.
As EV-077 does not directly interact with the virus it is expected to be less prone to the development of resistance by the virus.
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