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news.Siga Technologies has received a $4.8 million grant from the US National Institutes of Health to support the ongoing development of the company's lead smallpox drug candidate, SIGA-246.
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Recently SIGA-246 successfully completed its initial human safety clinical trial.
“The NIH has been a great supporter of our efforts to develop SIGA-246 during the past two years. We appreciate their continued funding and will use the current grant to support activities which are essential to advance SIGA-246 towards filing of a new drug application,” said Dr Dennis Hruby, chief scientific officer of Siga.
According to the company, smallpox is very easily transmitted from person to person, and is associated with mortality rates of 30-60% with 90% morbidity. Mass immunizations of the general population using the current live vaccine are not recommended, as there are known complications in certain individuals from vaccination.
At present there is no approved treatment for smallpox that can be safely administered to the general population without significant risk of adverse reactions.