Smallpox antiviral drug development: satisfying the animal efficacy rule.

Abstract

Concerns over the potential use of variola virus as a biological weapon have prompted new interest in the development of small molecule therapeutics to prevent and treat smallpox infection. Since smallpox is no longer endemic, human clinical trials designed to link antiviral efficacy to clinical outcome have been supplanted by antiviral efficacy evaluations in animal models of orthopoxvirus disease. This poses a unique challenge for drug development; how can animal efficacy data with a surrogate virus be used to establish clinical correlates predictive of human disease outcome? This review will examine the properties of selected animal models that are being used to evaluate poxvirus antiviral drug candidates, and discuss how data from these models can be used to link drug efficacy to clinical correlates of human disease.

• Authors: Robert Jordan, Dennis Hruby
• Journal: Expert review of anti-infective therapy (Expert Rev Anti Infect Ther) Vol. 4 Issue 2 Pg. 277-89 (Apr 2006) ISSN: 1744-8336 [Electronic] England
• PMID: 16597208 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Review)

Chemical References

• Antiviral Agents
• Smallpox Vaccine

Topics

• Animals
• Antiviral Agents (therapeutic use)
• Disease Models, Animal
• Humans
• Smallpox (drug therapy, prevention & control)
• Smallpox Vaccine (therapeutic use)
• Technology, Pharmaceutical (methods, trends)