molecules of the month

The first dengue NS3-NS4B inhibitor to enter the clinic. Recently disclosed in Nature, Janssen’s JNJ-1802 is the first dengue virus NS3-NS4B protein-protein interaction inhibitor to enter the clinic. The molecule is derived from a related chemical series to JNJ-A07, which was also disclosed in Nature in 2021 and highlighted as a Molecule of the Month in Oct. 2021, but binds to a different site than Novartis’s NS4B inhibitor NITD-688, which was also discovered via phenotypic screening. JNJ-1802 has completed a Ph. I study in healthy volunteers and is currently in three actively recruiting Ph. II trials including for the treatment of confirmed dengue fever in Singapore (NCT04906980) and prevention of dengue infection in Brazil (NCT05201794). There are still no small…