Viron's R&D efforts are currently focused on 4 development programs.
100 series
Presently, the 100 Series Program contains a single protein in Phase II clinical development, known as VT-111. VT-111 is a 55 kilodalton secreted glycoprotein and is a serine proteinase inhibitor (serpin). It has demonstrated favorable safety in a Phase I and numerous preclinical studies and remarkable efficacy in over 40 animal studies.
200 Series
In order to interrupt the recruitment and infiltration of leukocytes into inflamed tissue, Viron is developing potent inhibitors of chemokine activity. Uniquely, these inhibitors function by physically binding chemokines through high-affinity non-covalent interaction and hence are referred to as Chemokine Binding Proteins (CBPs)
The 200 Series Program contains three highly effective chemokine binding proteins. Derived from poxviral genomes, each of these proteins have demonstrated affinity to human chemokines and can inhibit the interaction between chemokines and chemokine receptors.
300 Series
The infiltration of leukocytes into infected and injured tissues is further mediated by pro-inflammatory cytokines within the human body. While the cytokine family consists of a diverse set of proteins that regulate numerous biological functions, several cytokines are known to be specifically released into the bloodstream during the onset and progression of inflammation. Such pro-inflammatory cytokines include IL-1β, IL-2, IFN-γ, IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-α. Similar to the VT-200 program, Viron's therapeutic approach in the VT-300 program is to block the signaling mediated by pro-inflammatory cytokines leading to the onset of leukocyte infiltration and inflammatory disease.
At present, the VT-300 program contains three Cytokine Binding Proteins at various stages of preclinical development and a viral CD30 protein licensed from the University of Cambridge.
900 Series: Discovery Program
Viron's product pipeline is sustained through the identification of novel candidates and therapies by a dynamic in-house discovery program. The discovery program utilizes a series of core competencies within the Company to screen candidate proteins for development as proprietary therapeutics. Viron management has spent the past year re-engineering the Company's drug discovery and development process and has implemented a leading edge process that combines an ex vivo human pathway model approach with traditional animal modeling. This process enables Viron to exploit its platform to develop numerous product candidates in parallel in a cost and time effective manner.
