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.

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