As Covid research heats up, J&J retires a BARDA-funded flu antiviral they worked on for 7 years
The last eight months have seen a resurgence in antivirals as researchers, scrambling for something that might treat Covid-19, repurposed approved HIV drugs and racked the libraries of small molecules on pharma and biotech’s shelves for any that could inhibit the novel virus. But yesterday, J&J took an antiviral it had been testing for 7 years and formally put it back on the shelf.
J&J announced it was ending development of the experimental influenza drug pimodivir after an interim analysis of a Phase III study showed the drug was “very unlikely” to succeed over standard of care. The company halted both that study, in hospitalized influenza A patients, and another one, in outpatients. The decisions were made in consultation with BARDA, which co-funded the program.
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