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Emerging Antiviral Drug Targets
Decision Resources, Inc., Feb 2006, Pages: 24
In recent years, many pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies have shifted their drug development for infectious diseases from antibacterial to antiviral discovery and development. This trend reflects a perception among many companies of limited commercial opportunity in antibacterials - due to high competition, increased genericization, and short treatment courses. In contrast, antiviral markets represent large populations, the need for chronic or long-term treatment, and significant unmet needs. In particular, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and hepatitis B virus (HBV) have been the focus of drug development, representing important areas of future growth. Early research has identified numerous potential targets in the viral lifecycle of these infections that could yield novel therapeutics with improved safety and efficacy.
This report provides an overview of the viral lifecycle of these infections, outlines the key drug targets and steps where pharmacologic intervention can have a favorable therapeutic benefit, and outlines key drugs aimed at emerging drug targets.
Business Implications
HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C are among the most important viral infections for drug developers because of their large patient populations, high medical need, and potential for chronic treatment. The complex viral lifecycles of these infections provide numerous potential targets for drug developers. To date, however, current therapies against these infections have focused on a limited number of targets.
Among these three infectious organisms, HIV has yielded the highest number of drug targets and candidates, partly because of the high level of investment in HIV research and availability of in vitro models for drug testing. Integrase and several viral and host proteins involved in viral entry (CCR5, gp120, gp41, and CD4) appear to be the most promising emerging targets for the next generation of HIV therapeutics.
Historically, hepatitis C virus (HCV) drug development has been hampered by the lack of reliable cell culture systems and animal infection models. However, several highly promising targets, including protease and polymerase, have yielded drug candidates that can potentially revolutionize the treatment of HCV.
In contrast with HIV and HCV, hepatitis B virus (HBV) drug development is relatively concentrated within nucleoside analogues that target reverse transcription. Drug development in HBV is aimed at providing nucleoside analogues with higher potency than currently marketed products and activity against viral strains resistant to current agents.
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