Aspergillosis

Disease

Invasive aspergillosis is a life-threatening infection that typically affects immunocompromised patients, including those with acute leukemia and recipients of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) or lung transplants. Infection typically starts in the lungs and rapidly disseminates to other tissues. More than 300,000 cases of invasive aspergillosis are diagnosed annually worldwide.

Treatment

The currently available antifungal agents indicated for treatment of this infection have limited efficacy, as the mortality in allogeneic HCT recipients with invasive aspergillosis can be as high as 50-60%. Over the past 30 years, only one new class of antifungal agents (echinocandins, which are primarily used for the treatment of fungal infections other than invasive aspergillosis) has been approved for the treatment of invasive fungal infections. GR-2397’s rapid onset of fungicidal activity, favorable clinical pharmacology profile and fungal cell specific uptake mechanism point to GR-2397 having the potential to become an important advance in the treatment of serious fungal infections.