Ab­b­Vie and Har­vard team up to find new drugs for the next new virus­es

De­spite pos­sess­ing a 20-year-old HIV drug that was pow­er­ful for its time and one of a hand­ful of he­pati­tis C cures, Ab­b­Vie has not ex­act­ly been known as a pow­er­house of an­tivi­ral re­search. Fa­mous pri­mar­i­ly for the TNF in­hibitor Hu­mi­ra — and their le­gal bat­tles to keep it un­der patent pro­tec­tion — the Chica­go-based com­pa­ny lists a sin­gle ex­per­i­men­tal med­i­cine un­der the “Vi­rol­o­gy” sec­tion of their web­site: A small-mol­e­cule in­hibitor for fi­lar­i­al dis­eases, i.e. dis­eases caused by par­a­sitic round­worms (which, one might point out, are, while an im­por­tant glob­al health threat, dis­tinct­ly not virus­es.)

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER