A New Star in Dengue Fever Treatment? AMS BioteQ Starts with Small Molecule Drugs

A New Star in Dengue Fever Treatment? AMS BioteQ Starts with Small Molecule Drugs

AMS BioteQ collaborates with Professor Sheng-Fan Wang, Director of the Center for Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases Research at Kaohsiung Medical University (first from the right), and Professor Wanchai Assavalapsakul from the Department of Microbiology, Chulalongkorn University in Thailand (second from the right), joining efforts to combat dengue fever.

An outbreak of dengue fever has occurred in the southern region. According to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control, the number of infections this year has exceeded a thousand cases, reaching the highest level for the same period in a decade. Faced with the threat of infectious diseases, humans find themselves defenseless. Looking globally, there is only one vaccine that has obtained FDA approval, and there is also a lack of pharmaceutical therapies for dengue fever. Why is it so challenging to combat dengue fever?

The primary reason lies in “cross-infection.” Dengue fever is divided into four types, and if therapy is developed only for one type, patients may experience more severe symptoms when cross-infected with another type. If one aims to target all four types simultaneously, the side effects of both therapy and vaccines may be excessively high and frequent. Due to variations in antigen characteristics of the virus and the subtype chosen for use, vaccination may result in varying efficacy and protection against all four types of dengue virus.

Professor Sheng-Fan Wang, Director of the Center for Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases Research at Kaohsiung Medical University, pointed out that although Sanofi Pasteur’s Dengvaxia has obtained FDA approval, it comes with several usage restrictions. Following closely behind, Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Merck Sharp & Dohme have both halted at the clinical trial stage. Furthermore, there is currently no specific medication available to treat dengue fever; only symptomatic relief is possible.

Oral medication is undoubtedly a critical key to controlling the epidemic. To fill the gap in dengue fever medication, AMS BioteQ (6864) has dedicated several years to dengue fever-related research. Recently, they have collaborated with top international universities domestically and abroad, partnering with the Center for Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases Research at Kaohsiung Medical University and Chulalongkorn University in Thailand. Together, they are researching small molecule drugs for dengue fever, with the hope of identifying effective treatment methods to combat the severe threat of dengue fever.

Professor Wanchai Assavalapsakul from the Department of Microbiology at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand pointed out that when different dengue types are prevalent, it is more likely to trigger severe dengue, leading to hemorrhaging and death. Currently, many research institutions in Thailand are actively using special herbal plants and extracts to develop new drugs. If effective and cost-effective drugs are discovered in the future, they could be used in the treatment of dengue fever.

AMS BioteQ Chairman, Dr. Yi-Ju Tsai, emphasized that the collaboration with Kaohsiung Medical University and Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, two cutting-edge medical universities, aims to address the challenges of dengue fever disease and small molecule drug development. Their goal is to strive for precision medicine in combating infectious diseases and hope to become a significant force in the fight against the dengue fever epidemic.