Worldwide potential of new drug

Prof Chris McGuigan led the team which discovered the drug

A new treatment for a painful condition caused by the same viral infection as chicken pox is a step closer.

Scientists based at Cardiff University have developed and patented an anti-viral drug for shingles.

The latest stage of trials are taking place in the USA and, if successful, could improve the lives of over 2.5m shingles sufferers worldwide.

The university said research indicated the drug was up to 10,000 times more potent than existing treatments.

Cardiff University's Prof Chris McGuigan, who led the team which discovered the drug - FV-100 - said it had the potential to be the most powerful inhibitor ever discovered to treat shingles.

He said: "Although FV-100 is early in its overall development plan, the chances of it becoming an approved medicine improves the further we successfully progress through each of the clinical stages.

Chickenpox

"We are incredibly excited at the prospect of FV-100 becoming commercially available in the future, and potentially being the first drug discovered in Cardiff University to make it to the marketplace."

The drug was discovered by a team in the Welsh School of Pharmacy and a group at the Rega Institute in Belgium.

It is being further developed with the US-based biopharmaceutical company Inhibitex, which expects to complete the latest stage of trials next year.

It is estimated that around one in five people in Europe, the US and Japan will be affected by shingles in their lifetime.

After a person has had chickenpox, the virus remains in their body and lies dormant in part of the nervous system.

For some reason, often many years later, the virus travels back down one of the nerves to the skin, where it causes a rash.