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Russia’s first smallpox drug NIOH-14 effective against all orthopoxviruses — developer

Smallpox is the only infections that has been eradicated worldwide thanks to the global vaccination program

NOVOSIBIRSK, July 19. /TASS/. Russia’s first smallpox drug NIOH-14, developed by the Novosibirsk Institute of Organic Chemistry jointly with the Vector State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology, is effective against all pox types, including monkeypox, Sergey Shchelkunov of the Vector Center said on Tuesday.

"The medicine is effective against all types of orthopoxviruses. It is effective against monkeypox, cowpox, and smallpox," he said, adding that the medicine has not yet been certified as of yet. However, in his words, as soon as it is done, NIOH-14 will be used to treat monkeypox.

According to Schchelkunov, NIOH-14 has completed all stages of pre-clinical trials and the first stage of clinical trials on volunteers. The drug doesn’t let viral particles leave infected cells and thus inhibits the viral infection development.

Before NIOH-14 was patented, no smallpox medicines had been manufactured in Russia.

Smallpox is the only infections that has been eradicated worldwide thanks to the global vaccination program. The last smallpox case in humans was registered in 1977 in Somalia. The eradication of the disease was officially announced in 1980. To date, only Russia’s Vector Center and the United States’ Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, have the right to keep and study the virus.

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