Traws Pharma, a Newtown, PA-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, is planning to advance potential clinical candidates to treat hantavirus infection.

What is Hantavirus?

A suspected outbreak of hantavirus—commonly carried by rodents, like mice—onboard a cruise ship has caused several human deaths. Health authorities are tracing exposed people. The virus first emanated from the Hantaan River area in Korea. It was first identified in the United States in 1993.

Traws Pharma specializes in developing novel therapies targeting critical threats to human health from respiratory viral diseases. Certain strains of hantavirus, a negative-strand RNA virus, carry a 30% to 50% fatality rate when transmitted to humans. Important to note, however: Such transmission is relatively rare, and human-to-human transmission is not as rampant as with coronaviruses.

How is Traws Pharma Responding?

Still, Traws Pharma says it has already been developing small-molecule antiviral drugs against negative-strand RNA viruses. These include influenza, H5N1 bird flu, and SARS-CoV-2. Currently, there are no approved treatments for Hantaan pulmonary disease.

Former U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield, MD, Traws’ Chief Medical Officer, noted this blind spot. He said hantaviruses frequently resurface in the Southwest U.S., South America, Asia, and other parts of the world.

“The ongoing outbreak … encourages an emergency program to develop life-saving treatments for this extremely dangerous disease,” Redfield said.

C. David Pauza, PhD, Traws’ Chief Scientific Officer, said the company will deploy both clinical and non-clinical antiviral drug assets.

“These drug candidates have already been tested for inhibition of negative-strand virus replication,” Pauza said.

He added such drugs may be used alone, or in combination with others, to achieve the necessary potency.

“Traws intends to [use] its established network of drug development and virus testing assets to identify the optimal candidates,” Pauza said.