Wellcome Trust, KU Leuven and Janssen join forces to combat dengue fever

The collaboration will build on an existing three-year drug discovery programme at the Rega Institute and the Centre for Drug Design and Discovery (CD3) at KU Leuven, supported by a Wellcome Trust Seeding Drug Discovery Award. This effort resulted in the identification of a series of chemical compounds that are highly potent inhibitors of dengue virus replication.

The alliance with the experienced Janssen Infectious Diseases & Vaccines team, based in Beerse, Belgium, and an additional Seeding Drug Discovery Award from the Wellcome Trust will enable the team to progress the compounds towards a first-in-class drug candidate for the prevention and treatment of infections with dengue virus.

At the end of the collaboration period, Janssen will have the option to further develop the candidate drug towards regulatory approval, with the goal to bring this drug to patients on a global basis. KU Leuven is also eligible to receive royalty payments on net sales of future products discovered or developed under the agreement.

Professor Johan Neyts of the Rega Institute, KU Leuven: “It has been a great experience to work with CD3 and the Wellcome Trust to discover this new class of dengue antivirals which can be further developed by Janssen as the first potential medication to prevent and treat infections with the dengue virus.”

Dengue virus is endemic in almost all tropical and subtropical areas of the world. The virus is transmitted by mosquitoes and causes a severe, debilitating fever, rash and muscle and joint pain sometimes referred to as ‘breakbone fever’. In some cases, infection can lead to internal haemorrhage and can be fatal.

Recent estimates indicate that there may be as many as 390 million dengue infections across the globe each year, of which 96 million develop symptoms associated with the infection. Yet there are currently no approved vaccines that can prevent infection or approved drugs that can stop the replication and spread of the dengue virus. Current approaches to treat the condition are focused on alleviating symptoms.

Ted Bianco, Director of Technology Transfer and Acting Director of the Wellcome Trust: “We urgently need dengue medications that combat the virus rather than the symptoms of infection. We welcome this strategic collaboration, bringing together a world-leading academic drug discovery group and an industry partner with an outstanding track record in the development of antivirals. We want to give the programme the best possible chances of success.”