Starpharma dendrimer effective against adenovius

Starpharma (ASX:SPL) has announced that its dendrimer drug candidate SPL7013 has shown strong promise as the first treatment for viral conjunctivitis.

In lab trials, SPL7013 has shown potent antiviral activity against adenovirus, the most common cause of viral conjunctivitis.

“The results of our studies assessing SPL7013 against adenovirus are very positive and further broaden the potential commercial applications of this dendrimer, which also has potent activity against the HIV, HPV and herpes viruses,” said Starpharma CEO Dr Jackie Fairley.

She said early feedback from potential partners and clinicians has been “very encouraging”. Based on this feedback, the company is pursuing further development in parallel with the next round of commercial negotiations.

SPL7013 was effective against a range of adenovirus strains. Viral conjunctivitis is highly contagious, painful and can cause major complications including lack of vision.

Roth Capital Partners has estimated the potential global market for an effective viral conjunctivitis treatment at US$700 million ($701 million).

SPL7013 is the lead product in Starpharma’s dendrimer synthetic nanoscale polymer program. The company’s lead product in development is VivaGel, a gel-based formulation of SPL7013.

The company had been developing VivaGel as a treatment for bacterial vaginosis (BV), but last year a phase III trial failed to meet its primary endpoint required for FDA approval. The company still plans to pursue approval for VivaGel as a potential treatment to prevent BV recurrence. Starpharma has also secured deals with Ansell and Okamoto to produce a line of VivaGel-coated microbicide condoms.

Starpharma is also using its dendrimer platform to produce a version of chemotherapy drug docetaxel and is exploring using the platform for more classes of drugs.

Starpharma shares were trading 3.23% lower at $0.90 as of around 1.30 pm on Monday.