​There is currently no treatment or vaccine for dengue fever available.   But a team of SGH and Duke-NUS researchers published results of the CELADEN study earlier this year, proving that the new drug Celgosivir may be the solution until a vaccine with high protection is available.

The team has now moved on to the next phase of the study to evaluate its efficacy and safety using a different regimen and as a combination with other dengue drugs.  

SingHealth and Duke-NUS have signed an exclusive licensing agreement with 60° Pharmaceuticals (60P) to conduct this next phase of trials.   The NUS Industry Liaison Office, which is part of NUS Enterprise, took the lead in coordinating and facilitating this multi-party collaboration and the license negotiatcion.

“Prior work conducted at Duke-NUS has demonstrated that dose regimen is an important factor in mediating the antiviral effects of Celgosivir,” said Professor Subhash Vasudevan, Emerging Infectious Diseases Program at Duke-NUS.

“We found that the drug regimen in our CELADEN study was well-tolerated.   And because dengue virus is cleared from the blood within three to five days and fever subsides in the same period, a regimen with more frequent dosing will be tested in the next phase of our trial to see its therapeutic effect,” said Dr Jenny Low, Senior Consultant, Department of Infectious Diseases, SGH, and Principal Investigator of the study.

Findings of the CELADEN study were published in Lancet Infectious Diseases on 28 May 2014.