La­tent or lyt­ic in­fec­tion? Does­n't mat­ter, Dan­ish biotech says for trans­plant-re­lat­ed cy­tomegalovirus drug

Most peo­ple in the world have cy­tomegalovirus, or CMV for short, but it has no ef­fect. How­ev­er, for some im­muno­com­pro­mised in­di­vid­u­als and new­borns, the usu­al­ly harm­less virus can cause se­ri­ous dis­ease in­volv­ing fever, nau­sea and vom­it­ing. In trans­plant pa­tients who have to take im­muno­sup­pres­sive meds, an ac­tive CMV in­fec­tion can al­so raise the chance of or­gan re­jec­tion.

Those trans­plant pa­tients at risk for CMV in­fec­tion are the group that Den­mark-based biotech Syn­kli­no is hop­ing to treat with its drug can­di­date, dubbed SYN002. The biotech has raised €29.8 mil­lion ($31.9 mil­lion) to move that can­di­date to­wards clin­i­cal tri­als, it an­nounced to­day.

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