Mar. 20, 2002 March 20, 2002 – An oral drug that halts the
deadly action of smallpox and related orthopox viruses in lab
tissue culture cells and in cowpox-infected mice has been
developed by researchers at the Veterans Affairs San Diego
Healthcare System (VASDHS) and the University of California, San
Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine, and is being evaluated by the
U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases
(USAMRIID). Called hexadecyloxypropyl-cidofovir (HDP-CDV), the
antiviral drug blocks the activity of variola, the virus that
causes smallpox and orthopox viruses, halting their ability to
replicate and spread. Developed as part of a national research
effort to design antiviral drugs for people infected by
smallpox, HDP-CDV is not yet available for human use. The drug
must still undergo additional testing in animals and safety
trials in healthy people. Announced today at the 15th
International Conference on Antiviral Research in Prague, Czech
Republic, HDP-CDV is a potent derivative of an exi