SERCEB develops fast results

The newly formed Southeast Regional Center of Excellence for Emerging Infections and Biodefense spearheaded by Duke's own Human Vaccine Institute Director Barton Haynes is already charging full speed ahead.

A new alternative to the current smallpox vaccine may be available for human use as early as March 2004, said consortium co-leader Dr. Richard Whitley of the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

 Chair of Medicine Dr. Pascal Goldschmidt pointed to past threats of mail laced with smallpox as a reason for developing "better mousetraps" to prepare the world against such possible re-emerging infections.

 "For heaven's sake, we need to be ready and [through SERCEB] we are going to be much more ready than before," he said.

 The biodefense research centers are unique in their collaborative approach toward reaching a common goal by working together with other universities in the region. SERCEB took this one step further and by partnering academia with private industry, the consortium is quickly generating results.

 He also noted that although there already exists a smallpox vaccine, the only drugs currently available are extremely toxic and associated with harmful side effects. However, the preclinical animal toxicology data on this new drug alternative they are evaluating with the help of Chimerix "looks spectacular."

 George Painter, president and CEO of Chimerix, explained that scientific collaboration between academia and the private sector is mutually beneficial because they can play off each other's weaknesses.

 "Academia tends to deal with the more creative side [of research], but there comes a point where some of the data is better gathered in the private sector--it's a symbiotic relationship," Painter said. "The consortium brings a great deal of expertise and focuses on a critical problem. From the private side, it gives us access to expertise that normally would be difficult to find."

 Although Chimerix would pocket the intellectual property rights of the new orthopox drug if compounds from the company are used, they are not receiving any of the $45 million grant funds awarded to SERCEB.

"We agreed to provide active compounds to investigators to continue looking for new drugs, but we don't get any money from the consortium," Painter said. "Money isn't really the key issue here. The magnitude of commercial opportunity is something we're investigating that could be potentially substantial, but in essence, [working with SERCEB] is very helpful for us because we'll be able to look at their data from our compounds and see if that data warrants further development."

 The main goal of the small pox project is to obtain Federal Drug Administration approval to test the drug in human clinical trials. This involves first developing molecular assays to screen orthopox drugs and then using these assays to identify drug compounds from Chimerix as well as optimize and test the most promising drugs in animal models.

 The timeline to reach a full FDA approval of this drug, however, is further off on the horizon. Eric Toone, professor of chemistry and involved in the optimization aspect of this project, said that while the road to getting a new drug approved for public use is "a long and arduous one," he is excited about the success of the orthopox project thus far.

 "We're starting from scratch and doing something new," he said. "[But] we're already finding efficacious compounds in animal studies--at least we're that far along."