Ionic Contraviral Therapy- ICVT

Animal Health -  Feline Herpes
Feline herpes virus causes the disease called feline viral rhinotracheitis (FVR) which is characterized by severe generalised infection as well as infection of the eyes and upper airways. In kittens and nursing cats, the infection may be fatal.

Incidence
Feline herpes virus infections are very common, and represent a major cause of morbidity in animal care institutions, the wild feline population and domestic cats, especially at times of breeding.

A recent sero-epidemiolgical study demonstrated that in wild cat populations feline herpes incidence was as high as 75%. Also in approximately one third of clinically normal cats, it was possible to isolate virus from their respiratory tract, and that over 97% of the whole study group had antibodies against FHV-1 by ELISA. This indicates that the infection is extremely common and is prone to recurrence, even in those animals that are clinically normal.

Current treatment
There is currently no treatment licensed to treat feline herpes infection. A vaccine is available for feline herpes virus infections, however this is not completely effective with a relative efficacy of only 52%., and most frequently, animals will develop symptoms prior to the age at which vaccine is routinely administered.

Potential Competitive Advantages
As ICVT utilises a combination of existing licensed compounds in a new way, the costs and time scale for toxicology, pharmacology and manufacture infrastructure scale-up are vastly reduced, leading to a rapid and cost effective route to market.

Initial studies have shown the FHV is very sensitive indeed to treatment with ICVT. Clinical studies are on-going to examine this application.

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