Open Orphan shares rose 4.4% to 12.8p in late afternoon trading on Tuesday after its subsidiary thathVIVO secured a £7.2 million contract with an unnamed top five global pharmaceutical company to test its orally administered antiviral product.
The testing process will use hVIVIO’s respiratory syncytial virus Human Challenge Study Model as it carries out a Phase 2a double-blinded placebo-controlled human challenge study, which will take place at the group’s specialist quarantine facilities in Whitechapel and is set to evaluate the safety and efficacy profile of the antiviral against RSV.
The study is scheduled to kick off this month, with revenue recognised in FY 2022 and FY 2023.
Open Orphan confirmed that hVIVO would be recruiting healthy volunteers through the firm’s FluCamp volunteer recruitment arm.
The company said its client’s antiviral is currently in Phase three clinical trials for another infectious disease indication, and will be using the human challenge to assess the efficacy of its antiviral drug candidate against RSV at great speed, with the intent of highlighting the value of human challenge studies within the process of drug development.
“We’re delighted to be working with this top 5 global pharmaceutical client again to test their antiviral candidate using the hVIVO RSV Human Challenge Study Model,” said Open Orphan CEO Yamin ‘Mo’ Khan.
“I am especially proud that our world-class offering and customer service has secured repeat business from another Big Pharma client, and that we are seen as the ‘go-to’ partner for an increasing number of global drug developers. The client’s drug has already been shown to be an effective antiviral in certain disease indications, and we’re pleased to now test its efficacy against RSV infection.”
“RSV continues to be a serious global health threat causing an estimated 100,000 annual deaths in children under the age of five.”