NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SIGA Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: SIGA) announced today the successful results of a proof of concept guinea pig trial of its lead Lassa fever virus drug, ST-193.
This study was conducted under Biosafety Level 4 conditions at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) by Dr. Kathleen Cashman under the supervision of Dr. Mary Guttieri, who has been working on various hemorrhagic fever viruses at USAMRIID for over 12 years. Strain 13 guinea pigs were challenged with a lethal dose of Lassa virus and treated with ST-193 once a day for 14 days. Administration with ST-193 resulted in significant reduction in mortality at the two doses tested, 80 mg/kg and 25 mg/kg (71% of the animals survived at the low dose), whereas all of the control animals and those treated with ribavirin succumbed to the disease within 20 days of the challenge. The disease course in these guinea pigs recapitulates what is seen in human Lassa fever infections, and SIGA expects that this model is one of the two animal models that will be required to fulfill the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s “Animal Efficacy Rule.”
