FermaVir’s Founder and Board Member Professor Chris McGuigan Receives the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Award for Medicinal Chemistry
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FermaVir Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has announced that the Royal Society of Chemistry will present Professor Chris McGuigan the society’s award for Medicinal Chemistry on the 17th of November at their awards dinner in Glasgow.
Professor McGuigan is a founder and Board member of FermaVir. FermaVir has licensed the technology produced in Professor McGuigan’s laboratory for the use in treatment in Shingles and Cytomegalovirus infections.
FermaVir’s FV-100, a novel pro-drug antiviral clinical candidate for Shingles, is currently in preclinical studies for filing an Investigational New Drug Application with the FDA.
“FV-100 is a perfect example of why Chris is receiving this prestigious award,” said Dr. Geoffrey Henson, CEO of FermaVir. “The novel compounds which Chris and his laboratory discovered and synthesized are the most potent compounds ever described for the treatment of Shingles.
Chris and his laboratory in Cardiff, Wales have been involved directly in helping FermaVir move the clinical candidate, FV-100, efficiently into the clinic. Professor McGuigan and the Cardiff group have effectively helped transfer the synthetic processes to larger production scale.
Their knowledge and expertise has helped to dramatically speed up the production of the material for the preclinical and clinical studies. We have just recently received the latest batch of FV-100 for the remaining preclinical studies to complete our IND in the first quarter of 2007.”
The Company has initiated preclinical studies with its proprietary antiviral compound, currently known by its laboratory designation, FV-100, to be followed by clinical studies, as part of a long-term strategic plan for ultimate drug approval and commercialization.
Research data shows that the compound is more than 10,000 times more potent than currently approved drug treatments for shingles.
Professor McGuigan’s work with Professor’s Erik De Clercq and Jan Balzarini from the Rega Institute has led to the portfolio of FermaVir’s proprietary medical technologies and clinical candidates planned for development to treat a family of viral diseases related to herpes.
Among FermaVir's other lead drug candidates from this collaboration are powerful antiviral compounds to treat Cytomegalovirus (CMV), another potentially debilitating condition.
A number of these anti-CMV compounds which have promising activity are undergoing preclinical testing to select a clinical candidate for CMV by the end of 2007.
