Curovir

Curovir is a privately-held Swedish biopharmaceutical company founded in 2017 as a spin-off from Apodemus AB. The company is dedicated to the development of novel antiviral drugs for EV infections. Curovir also evaluates the effect of pleconaril in type 1 diabetes in collaboration with researchers at Oslo University Hospital. Pleconaril is an EV antiviral substance that was previously developed for the common cold.

Curovir is a family business managed by Johan Claesson, a Swedish businessman. Mr. Claesson is active in several sectors, including finance, real estate, energy, farming and pharma.

Organization

Curovir is a virtual company that drives development by contracting with companies to conduct different tasks as needed.

Further, Curovir collaborates with researchers at various universities throughout the world to develop and evaluate different ideas, as well as to test antiviral substances in by various methods.

The organization is optimized for early pharmaceutical development with minimal overhead and maximal flexibility for resources and competences. The in-house team consists of three employees and the owner, Johan Claesson.

Curovir is supported by Sweden’s innovation agency, Vinnova.

Contributing to society

Antiviral treatments for EV and RSV have the potential to make a great contribution to society and would address four of the WHO’s sustainable development goals:

These goals would be addressed by the antiviral treatments’ potential to:

• Contribute to curb poverty by minimizing the economic impact associated with EV and RSV infections through making antiviral treatments widely accessible throughout the world. Reduced loss of school- and workdays is one contributing factor to such effect.
• Contribute to better health by decreasing the morbidity and mortality associated with EV and RSV infections.
• Contribute to gender equality. In basically all societies irrespective of economic wealth, women take a larger responsibility in caring for children. A decrease in child morbidity will minimize the need to care for sick children which will enhance women work capacity and independence. Further, women are more exposed to risks of infections in relation to pregnancy, childbirth and since they are overrepresented as frontline workers in healthcare.
• Contribute to decrease inequality by primarily benefiting vulnerable populations (such as newborns, young children, the elderly, immunosuppressed patients, and those with certain coexisting diseases) and societies. Low- and middle-income countries are more seriously affected by infectious diseases in general. This is partly due to lack of hygiene, sanitation, access to clean water and advanced healthcare. Also, in a crisis like e.g. a pandemic, the demand for products from these countries declines as well as investments from international investors. This leads to increased poverty and inequality as the ability for people to earn a living is compromised.

Patents

Curovir holds five patent families protecting novel antiviral substances and the use of substances for the treatment of virus-induced diseases. The patent application describing the new substance, CUR-N399, will be active until late 2039 in its basic version. The company also expects to develop additional patent protections during the development process. Three of the patent families have been granted in multiple jurisdictions.