Poolbeg Pharma identifies potential new drug candidates for RSV infections

Pictured Jeremy Skillington, Chief Executive Officer at Poolbeg Pharma. Picture Jason Clarke

Irish biotech company Poolbeg Pharma has announced today that it has identified potential new drug candidates for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections.

In a collaboration with US firm, OneThree Biotech, the two companies joined forces in February this year, with Poolbeg today revealing that they have determined mutiple drug targets for the treatment of RSV. 

Respiratory Syncytial Virus inflames the smallest airways in the lungs, usually causing mild, cold-like symptoms for those infected. 

The virus usually sends an average of 58,000-80,000 children under the age of 5 to hospital each year in the US alone, while in Ireland, there has been a 35% rise in the number of cases so far this year (4,470) compared to 3,308 in the same period of 2021.

According to Poolbeg CEO, Jeremy Skillington, RSV is one of three main respiratory illnesses for which there are no approved vaccines with treatment options "limited".

Following the identification of these drug targets, Poolbeg Pharma and OneThree Biotech have picked out "a number of promising candidates" to bring to a lab-based validation stage which will determine the full potential of these assets.

Poolbeg Pharma has now prioritised compounds with existing Phase 1 safety and tolerability data, which could, if successfully validated, be repositioned as novel treatments for RSV infections.

According to Poolbeg, the drug candidates are well positioned to rapidly enter a clinical trial to generate early human efficacy data for RSV.

Speaking on the announcement, Chief Executive, Jeremy Skillington continued, "In the past few months, RSV has been sending children to hospital at alarming rates in the United States and Europe. 

"As paediatric units fill beyond capacity, and our healthcare systems contend with a 'tripledemic' of RSV, influenza and SARS-CoV-2, the need for better treatments has never been so urgent.

"We're impressed with the quality of work executed so far with OneThree to present new drug potential candidates from our unique human challenge trial data."