The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson (Janssen) announced today the publication of new data in the journal Nature showing that an early-stage clinical candidate (JNJ-1802) provides strong protection against dengue in non-human primates and mice. The first-in-class antiviral, which was shown to be safe and well tolerated in a Phase 1 first-in-human clinical study, is now progressing into Phase 2 clinical studies for the prevention and treatment of dengue.

The new data indicate JNJ-1802 is effective against all four of the dengue serotypes in mouse models and provides strong protection against two tested serotypes (DENV-1 and -2) in non-human primates. These findings build on research published in Nature in 2021 that first identified the novel mechanism of action from the same chemical series as JNJ-1802.

“The unprecedented rise in dengue outbreaks throughout the past years offers a glimpse of what lies ahead as climate change continues to put more people and communities at risk of dengue,” said Ruxandra Draghia-Akli, M.D., Ph.D., Global Head, Global Public Health R&D at Janssen Research & Development, LLC. “We know an antiviral will be critical to addressing the unmet needs today and tomorrow, and we are committed to developing our breakthrough compound to expand the toolset available to prevent and treat dengue.”

Janssen thanks its strategic partners in the research and development of its dengue compound, including the KU Leuven Rega Institute, the KU Leuven Centre for Drug Design and Discovery (CD3), Department of Virology at the Biomedical Primate Research Centre, Department of Infectious Diseases at Heidelberg University, Sealy Institute for Vaccine Sciences at the University of Texas Medical Branch Health (UTMB), Unité des Virus Émergents at Aix-Marseille University and the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.