In a field lit­tered with fail­ures, pos­i­tive da­ta prompt speedy US, EU re­view of As­traZeneca's long-act­ing RSV drug

The com­plex mol­e­c­u­lar struc­ture of the res­pi­ra­to­ry syn­cy­tial virus (RSV) has large­ly thwart­ed drug­mak­ers from de­vel­op­ing a vac­cine or treat­ment for an in­fec­tion that af­flicts most Amer­i­can in­fants be­fore their sec­ond birth­day. But As­traZeneca — the orig­i­nal mak­er of the on­ly pre­ven­ta­tive treat­ment, Synagis, for se­ri­ous low­er res­pi­ra­to­ry tract in­fec­tions (LR­TI) caused by RSV in in­fants and young chil­dren — has now been of­fered an ex­pe­dit­ed re­view from US and EU reg­u­la­tors for its long-act­ing RSV drug, ME­DI8897.

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