A Durham pharmaceutical company has received $3.5 million from a federal agency to support clinical trials for a drug to treat people with yellow fever.
For BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, the latest funds from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for galidesivir brings development contract funding to a total of $43 million.
BioCryst saw success during its Phase 1 trials; healthy patients tolerated the drug and found it to be safe. In animal studies, galidesivir showed benefits against several viruses, including Ebola, yellow fever and Zika.
Severe cases of yellow fever lead to fatal heart, liver and kidney conditions. The disease is particularly serious in tropical areas of Africa and Central and South America, responsible for 170,000 severe cases and up to 60,000 deaths annually, according to the World Health Organization. Currently, there is no approved treatment for the disease.
Brazil in particular faces serious issues with the disease. Seasonal outbreaks have put more than 35 million people at risk, and the Brazilian Ministry of Health has confirmed 2,043 cases and 676 deaths from yellow fever since December 2016.
The galidesivir development program project has been funded by the NIAID – part of the National Institutes of Health – and Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Service’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness Response.
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