The Aderon™ concept has been first reduced to practice by Defyrus in collaboration with a vaccine from the Public Health Agency of Canada to treat Ebola virus infection. In Guinea pigs, DEF201 was combined with an Ebola vaccine and together they provided 100% survival from a highly lethal dose of Ebola-Zaire virus infections. In a primate model of Ebola infection, Defilovir™ resulted in 67% survival when treated post-challenge. This represents the best survival result ever achieved in the Cynomolgus primate model, which is especially remarkable given the single administration of the combination therapy.
Through extensive studies of available treatments for Ebola infection, Defilovir™ has been proven to have the best and most consistent survival benefit in multiple animal species, and has thus been selected as the preferred treatment of Ebola infections at the National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada.
This project is the subject of a recently selected CRTI proposal for the advanced development and pre-clinical testing of Defilovir™.
