A Guided Tour Through the Antiviral Drug Field

Approximately 40 compounds have been formally licensed for clinical use as antiviral drugs, with half of these in use for the treatment of HIV infections. The remaining have been approved for use in the therapy of herpes virus (herpes simplex virus, varicella zoster virus and cytomegalovirus), hepadnavirus, hepacivirus and myxovirus (influenza and respiratory syncytial virus) infections. New compounds are in clinical development or under preclinical evaluation, and again, half of these are intended to target HIV infections. However, quite a number of important viral pathogens (i.e., human papillomavirus, hepatitis C virus and hemorrhagic fever viruses) remain in need of effective and/or improved antiviral therapies.