Influenza Drug

About

Background: Influenza, commonly called the “flu”, is a viral respiratory tract infection that affects the throat and lungs. Influenza virus infects more than 16 million patients annually in the United States, costing billions of dollars in direct medical costs alone. Drug development is crucial to limit the disease’s spread but is made difficult by the virus’s propensity to mutate readily and develop drug resistance. Highly pathogenic drug-resistant strains of the virus can emerge quickly, infecting thousands of patients in a very short period of time. The current invention is a novel dual-action drug that has been shown to inhibit the replication of influenza virus, while reducing the risk of creating drug-resistant strains. This technology uses two molecular compounds, ASN-D and LAS-T, that effectively bind to viral replication machinery inside infected cells and prevent the virus from making copies of itself and spreading further throughout the patient’s lungs. Additionally, unlike other influenza drug therapies, this invention is designed to specifically and exclusively target viral proteins, so that this approach is likely to be non-toxic to the patient’s own cells. About the Market: The global market for overall influenza was estimated to be $6.1 billion in 2016 and is anticipated to reach $10.2 billion by 2022. This market is poised to experience a robust CAGR of 8.5% through 2022. In terms of market segments, vaccines account for about 80% of the influenza market while therapeutics account for the remaining 20%. However, the therapeutics segment is projected to be the fastest growing with a CAGR of 11% over the next five years. This market constantly faces the major challenge of antigenic drift of influenza viruses, caused by the virus’s propensity to frequently mutate and quickly gain drug resistance. However, the current invention has been designed to specifically target a replication attribute that is well-shared across influenza virus strains and that seldom mutates, making it much more difficult for the virus to develop drug-resistance. Furthermore, influenza is associated with a considerable economic burden in terms of healthcare costs, lost days of work or education, and general social disruption. Several studies have estimated the costs of certain recent flu epidemics at $1 to $2 billion. This creates a tremendous incentive for governments and healthcare providers to pursue novel and more effective treatments and has subsequently resulted in an abundance of financial and regulatory resources available to produce and manufacture novel influenza treatments. For more information, contact Mike Alder (801-422-3049)