Retroscreen Virology Group Confirms Start of First-Ever Asthma Study


Retroscreen Virology Group has confirmed the start of its first-ever asthma study as it seeks to develop a safe, reproducible and clinically relevant asthma human challenge model.

The company is sponsoring the study itself and plans to launch the model as the first commercially available viral challenge model for the study of asthma and third-party asthma and antiviral therapies in asthmatic subjects.
The model will also provide Retroscreen with its first samples obtained from subjects during the course of an asthma exacerbation using its hVIVO platform.

Retroscreen is developing a range of new human challenge models, incorporating its viral challenge model concept, to expand its service offering into new disease areas with high unmet need.

These include respiratory diseases such asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), where exacerbations are typically caused by Human Rhinovirus (HRV-16) and other respiratory viruses.
The first subject has now been enrolled in a randomized double-blind study of the safety and tolerability of asthmatics to challenge with HRV-16.

The aim is to validate the safety and tolerability of the HRV-16 virus and to assess the impact of infection with HRV-16 in this asthmatic population.

Up to twenty-one asthmatic subjects, who are currently being treated with short-acting inhaled β-agonists alone, will be inoculated with the challenge virus or placebo.
The primary safety endpoint is the incidence, number and severity of asthma exacerbations as determined by independent clinical review.