WASHINGTON, Oct 28 (Reuters) - A new, injected influenza drug appears to reduce symptoms as well as rival drugs Tamiflu and Relenza, researchers reported on Tuesday.
They said BioCryst Inc’s peramivir cut by a third the number of days that people were sick with flu in a phase II trial, meant to show safety and efficacy.
The company should be able to move to phase III trials, the last phase before seeking U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval, Dr. Shigeru Kohno of the Nagasaki University Graduate School of Medicine, told a new conference.
An earlier trial failed to show the new drug worked well but longer needles apparently worked to deliver the drug more effectively, said Dr. Bill Sheridan, chief medical officer of BioCryst.
Two different doses of peramivir cut the time that people were sick with flu by 32 percent, Kohno, who studied the drug on behalf of Japan’s Shionogi & Co, told a meeting of the American Society of Microbiology and the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
