Visterra partners with A*STAR to develop VIS513 for Dengue

Privately-held US biotech firm Visterra and the Drug Discovery & Development (D3) unit under the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore, have announced a collaboration to further the development of VIS513, Visterra’s broadly neutralizing antibody for the treatment of Dengue fever.

VIS513, which was engineered using Visterra’s innovative and proprietary technology, is a humanized monoclonal antibody that is designed to bind and potently neutralize all four serotypes of dengue virus. The company’s preclinical studies of VIS513 in animal models have demonstrated a rapid reduction in viral titers after a single systemic administration, which supports its potential use as a single administration treatment for dengue virus infection.

The collaboration combines Visterra’s expertise in therapeutic antibodies for challenging infectious diseases with D3’s proficiency in bringing early stage discoveries into clinical development. D3 and Visterra will also work together with infectious disease experts at Duke-National University of Singapore (Duke-NUS) to generate additional data necessary to initiate clinical trials of VIS513. On completion of these activities, D3 and Visterra will advance VIS513 through proof-of-concept clinical trials in humans, which will be conducted in Singapore. Under the terms of the collaboration agreement Visterra retains all rights to develop and commercialize VIS513 globally. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed.