Long term collaboration on new generation antivirals
NeoVirTech announces its collaboration with the French Technology Transfer Accelerator Office SAYENS to develop and optimize a new generation of broad spectrum antivirals for human and animal health.
Origin of the project
This project begins with the discovery of nitroccoroles as anti-herpes molecule in a first screening campaign in collaboration between NeoVirTech and ICMUB (UMR CNRS 6302, uB, Dijon), highlighted by the July 2015 ACS Infectious Disease cover. These compounds are commonly used as ligands for metal complexes but never for their potential anti-viral properties. First generation compounds displayed promising antiviral activity in vitro.
An agreement to foster innovation
SAYENS, a French Technology Transfer Accelerator Office is dedicated to detect and invest into the best research project for potential industrialization ; and NeoVirTech, a French biotechnology company focusing its activity on antiviral discovery and virus/viral vector imaging, now enter into an agreement to develop second and third generation antiviral compounds. Backed by the Chemistry Group of Prof. C. P. Gros from ICMUB and the Medicinal/Pharmaceutical school (uB), this collaboration already led to the generation of more than 200 variants and optimized antivirals with new mechanism of action, nM activity with selectivity indexes over 500. Optimized compounds did not display any toxicity in vivo and are active on a large variety of dsDNA viruses, leading to 2 international patents fillings. Optimized variants are not only highly potent, they are also very simple to synthesize with a “one to two step” reaction. Upscaling is therefore made easier. On a multibillion dollar market such as the infectious disease market, new molecules offer a promising return on investment.
