Biota set to research neo-epidemics

With SARS ravaging Asia and avian flu decimating Dutch poultry farms, antiviral company Biota is to ramp up activities within the both the treatment and diagnostic fields.

"We don't want to be alarmist, but we need to be prepared," commented Dr Simon Tucker, research director at Biota. "The experts are saying it's a matter of time before we have the next pandemic."

Biota already widely markets its anti-flu drug, Relenza, which is effective against a wide range of flu viruses including avian strains. An avian flu strain was responsible for the death of a Dutch veterinarian in the Netherlands recent outbreak. This strain -- which caused 16 million chickens to be put down in Europe last week -- is a new strain, but is still capable of being controlled by Relenza.

More worrying, said Tucker, is the possibility of the same or a similar virus developing the ability to be spread directly between humans; at the moment all deaths have been linked to contact with infected chickens.

"There has been a high degree of interest from the Asian region in our product, on the basis of both human and animal flu containment. There have already been deaths from avian flu in both Hong Kong and Europe, but only from contact with animals. The big fear is if these viruses manage to make the jump and are spread directly between humans. That would be very, very serious," he said.

According to Biota, the potential problem then escalates beyond the pharma's physical capability to supply the drugs and diagnostics. Equally importantly, governments have to be prepared.

"Stockpiling antiviral drugs becomes a very important issue for the authorities to wrestle with - do they make them available to doctors, nurses, where and so on. Australia does have a pandemic strategy, as does the WHO and other countries. But there just wouldn't be time to develop a vaccine. The speed of contagion is the worrying aspect -- look how fast SARS has spread," Tucker noted.

Biota CEO Peter Molloy flagged the potential problems that could occur if a major viral outbreak did occur, citing the outbreak in Japan earlier this year which caused 500 schools to be closed.

"If this was repeated in the future and spread to the US or Europe, it would be difficult to keep up supplies," he warned. At the current time, GlaxoSmithKline, which manufactures Relenza, is not reported to be ramping up production.

According to Tucker, the threat from SARS is also causing the company to look into its research library for potentially useful compounds, either for diagnosis or treatment use.

"This is a very nasty little virus, and appears to spread very rapidly. We are already looking through our library of compounds for anything which might useful against SARS. But just as important is the use of diagnostics to determine who exactly has the virus," he noted.

If a large number of sick people turned out to be suffering from flu, not SARS, the possibility of a seriously clogged if not totally bogged health system would be a serious reality.

"One of the big concerns is the ability to identify those people who have flu and those who have SARS. If somebody is going to be delayed for ten days at the airport to find out they only have flu, that is a really serious issue. However, tests to check for flu have been on the market for years," he noted.

The company's long standing work in the anti-viral field means they have a large number of compounds which could, said Tucker, have some potential as an anti-coronavirus agent. Some researchers have speculated that Biota's anti-rhinovirus compound might be effective against SARS, although the company stated no link had been established as yet.

Tucker said the avian flu and SARS outbreaks were a timely reminder of the dangers of epidemics, and said most people were very lax in their approach to the dangers of flu viruses.

"It's very frustrating that the majority of the public are unwilling to see flu as a real problem. Things like this are a real wake-up call," he said.