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Hvivo signs €7.3m contract to test cold virus treatment

Pharmaceutical services company is testing drug for human rhinovirus in human challenge trial

Human rhinovirus can have a mild effect in many people, but can exacerbate conditions such as COPD or asthma

Ciara O'Brien
Tue Jan 2 2024 - 07:42

Hvivo, the pharmaceutical services company formerly known as Open Orphan, has signed a contract worth £6.3 million (€7.3 million) to test a potential treatment for the common cold.

The contract, which is with an unnamed biotechnology client, is for a human challenge trial for an antiviral candidate to treat human rhinovirus (HRV), evaluating the effect on viral load, safety, tolerability and prophylactic antiviral activity. It will be carried out at the company’s new quarantine facilities in Canary Wharf.

More than 150 distinct types of HRV are currently known, but to date, no antiviral has been approved in the prevention or treatment of HRV infection. While many people with HRV suffer mild infection or are asymptomatic, the virus group is linked to the exacerbation of asthma and COPD.

Expected to begin in the second half of the year, the revenue from the contract will be recognised in 2024 and 2025.

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“Our human challenge trials can provide quick efficacy data, that has the potential to significantly enhance the value of our clients’ assets, something which is critical in the current tight biotech investment landscape,” said Hvivo chief executive Yamin ‘Mo’ Khan. “There is renewed focus and capital available to biopharma companies with assets targeting respiratory disease indications. Our HRV Human Challenge Model offers our clients the opportunity to open up these markets, given HRV’s association to exacerbation of asthma and COPD.”

Hvivo, which specialises in testing infectious and respiratory disease products, was formed when the group’s chairman Cathal Friel reversed his pharma services business, then known as Open Orphan, into Dublin-listed drug clinical trials manager Venn Life Sciences. It rebranded as Hvivo in 2022.

Ciara O'Brien

Ciara O'Brien

Ciara O'Brien is an Irish Times business and technology journalist

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