Life sciences firm hVIVO PLC (LON:HVO) says its “landmark” asthma study is underway after inoculating its first volunteer with human rhinovirus at its London clinical research unit.
The study – officially the asthma stratification program – will hopefully offer an insight into the common but relatively unknown condition, allowing scientists to develop more precision-based medicine treatments.
“Even though millions suffer from asthma today, very little is known about the disease,” said chief executive Kym Denny.
“We believe the hVIVO platform's capability to provide a window into the disease process and capture exacerbations in action will be a powerful tool in the fight to treat and prevent asthma."
500 subjects – both healthy and asthma patients – will be infected with human rhinovirus and patients will be monitored as their underlying condition is exacerbated by the viral infection.
Currently, there are no easy tests to diagnose asthma, which affects more than 300 million around the world, or to differentiate between the various different phenotypes.
As such, it is generally treated as one condition but that means many patients don’t respond well to current treatments, which hVIVO says highlights the need for “more personalised remedies”.
The company said that interim data analysis is expected to be conducted in the third quarter of 2017.
Shares were down 1%, or 1.5p, to 177p.