title: Discontinued drugs in 2005: anti-infectives.
abstract: This perspective is the fifth in a series discussing drugs dropped from development in 2005, of which 11 were being developed for infectious diseases. Of these, eight were antivirals and were dropped in Phase II or III: Medivir's alovudine, Ono Pharmaceuticals' aplaviroc hydrochloride and Excite's immunotherapeutic Xcellerate for HIV; Boehringer Ingelheim's ciluprevir, ViroPharma's HCV-086, Isis Pharmaceuticals' antisense oligonucleotide ISIS-14803, Japan Tobacco's JTK-003 and Rigel's R803 for hepatitis C virus. The remaining discontinued anti-infective drugs were an antibacterial vaccine (Vical's anthrax vaccine), an antiseptic (YM Bioscience's Dermofural) and an antifungal formulation (MacroChem's topical econazole). The drugs are grouped by compound class and reasons for their failure are discussed in this article.
authors.affiliation: MethylGene, Inc., 7220 Frederick-Banting, Montreal, QC H4S 2A1, Canada. nafsikag@aol.com
authors.forename: Nafsika
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Georgopapadakou
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000890:Anti-Infective Agents / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000737:chemistry / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy; D004335:Drug and Narcotic Control / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents