Antiva Biosciences Inc. has developed an intravaginal topical treatment, ABI-2280, for high-risk cervical infections with human papillomavirus (HPV). In a phase Ib/II study, after two weeks of treatment at the highest dose of the DNA polymerase inhibitor, 46% of patients were negative for high-risk HPV at week 12, compared to just 16% of patients treated with placebo.

A precancerous condition caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV) affects up to 300,000 American women who are diagnosed each year, and yet there are no treatments, just preventive vaccines introduced in 2006 – targeted to younger generations prior to the first sexual encounter. That leaves a large proportion of the female population stuck with a “wait-and-see” approach that involves continuous monitoring of their HPV infection through pap smears to detect cellular changes that could lead to cervical cancer. South San Francisco-based Antiva Biosciences Inc. is seeking to find a better response to this condition known as high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN2,3) with its lead topical therapeutic, ABI-2280, a prodrug of an acyclic nucleoside phosphonate that is currently in phase I trials.