New drug candidate gives 100pc protection against influenza

Washington -  Visterra, Inc. has announced the presentation of positive data from a preclinical study evaluating the efficacy of the company’s lead product candidate, VIS410, a broadly  protective, fully human monoclonal antibody being developed for influenza A infections.

Developed using Visterra’s innovative platform, VIS410 targets a site on influenza hemagglutinin (HA) that is present across all influenza A subtypes and is resistant to mutation development.

VIS410 demonstrated broad neutralization against all influenza A strains tested in vitro, and provided potent and specific protection in mouse models against a lethal dose of influenza A  virus, both prophylactically and therapeutically.

In prophylactic studies, 100 percent of healthy non-infected mice who received a single dose of VIS410 survived subsequent infection with either H1N1 or H3N2 influenza A virus. In  post-infection therapeutic studies, 100 percent of mice treated with a single dose of VIS410 survived a lethal viral challenge of either H1N1 or H3N2 when antibody was administered up to 72  hours after infection.

“This data with VIS410 shows several ways that this drug candidate has promise for fighting influenza, including possible pandemic strains,” said Donna Ambrosino, M.D., Chief Medical  Officer of Visterra.

“With VIS410, we have designed an antibody that targets the viral hemagglutinin protein (HA) to enable to healthy person or patient to prevent or treat an established infection. Secondly, we

have designed VIS410 as an antibody that neutralizes both groups of viral strains for influenza A, Group 1 and Group 2 viruses, opening the potential for a single monoclonal antibody to

provide protection from all influenza A strains,” Ambrosino noted.

Steven Brugger, CEO of Visterra stated “We are highly encouraged by these VIS410 results, which suggest that an antibody approach such as Visterra’s may be a turning point in the

development of a new universal approach for both seasonal and pandemic influenza.”

“This study confirms proof of concept for our proprietary platform to identify unique targets that guide the engineering of novel drugs that are designed to be highly effective in the

prevention or treatment of infectious disease,” he added.

The data on VIS410 were presented today at the 52nd Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) in San Francisco.