Serious Candida Infections: Scynexis's Oral Antifungal Could Challenge Fluconazole

The treatment of severe or recurrent Candida vaginal infections often relies on oral fluconazole or a handful of topical antifungal agents, a gap in the market that US biotech, Scynexis Inc., is hoping to fill with SCY-078, the first of a new class of structurally distinct glucan synthase inhibiting triterpenoids. Positive Phase IIb results in the DOVE study involving an oral formulation of the product for moderate-to-severe acute vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) have just been reported.

According to the Biomedtracker database, other investigational antifungal agents in development targeting glucan synthase are rare. Cidara Therapeutics Inc. has a potential antifungal candidate, rezafungin, in Phase III studies as an intravenous once-weekly formulation