Viron discovers and commercializes potent biologics that modulate key steps in the inflammatory cascade and is the first company to successfully advance a viral protein as a therapeutic agent into human clinical testing. Viron's novel approach to drug discovery has produced some of the most potent anti-inflammatory molecules ever described. Viron's proprietary viral protein candidate screening program, PROSPECTTM, enables the identification of therapeutics that preferentially target pathways of proven value to the industry.
Viruses are among the most successful invaders of the human body. During infection, viruses "take over" the host cellular machinery to produce proteins necessary for virus survival and replication. Through millions of years of co-evolution with their hosts, viruses have been able to mutate, adapt and overcome detection and clearance by the immune system. Viruses have identified the key molecular and cellular targets that regulate critical pathways of the human immune system and produce countermeasures to inactivate or block them.
Viron is founded on the proven principles that certain protein therapeutics are pre-validated as targeting important regulatory pathways, reducing the risk of insufficient biological activity. These viral proteins possess certain key competitive advantages over monoclonal antibody approaches:
1. Focus on key targets
- Viruses have determined the most potent pathways that are critical to dampen an inflammatory response.
2. Lower doses than most monoclonal antibodies (µg/kg vs mg/kg)
- Reduces risk of toxicity and immunogenicity.
3. Highly host adaptive
- Having co-evolved with the mammalian immune system, the risk of failure due to lack of biological activity is reduced.
4. Extremely tight binding to target
- Equivalent or greater than most monoclonal antibody therapies.
5. Often target more than one immunomodulatory pathway
- A feature that monoclonal antibodies cannot match.
