Medivir and Janssen to Develop Dengue Drugs

Medivir and Janssen will initiate an R&D program to utilize their core competences in the discovery and development of protease inhibitors.

Medivir has signed a partnership deal with Janssen Pharmaceutica to discover and develop drugs for the prophylaxis and treatment of dengue virus. Under the collaboration, Medivir and Janssen will begin an R&D programme and co-develop drugs based on the inhibition of the dengue NS3 protease activity.

Both companies will contribute equal resources towards the research programme. Medivir has an option to continue to contribute equal funding for the non-clinical and clinical development stages.

Depending on level of funding through pre-specified endpoints, each party has the option to take the discovered drugs through develop