Posted: June 8, 2010

FluGen Inc. has gotten rights from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation to further develop a new class of antiviral drugs with the potential to stop viruses after a patient has been infected, the Madison start-up said Tuesday morning.

The drugs, developed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, are expected to have a unique ability to help patients several days after flu symptoms appear, FluGen said in a news release.

Existing antiviral drugs such as Tamiflu have to be given to a patient within 24 hours to 48 hours of infection to be effective. The new drugs use a peptide - a short chain of amino acids - to block the influenza virus' entry into human cells.

FluGen could have the new drugs ready for human clinical trials in 12 to 18 months, and available commercially in less than five years, Paul Radspinner, FluGen's president and chief executive officer, said in a statement.

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