Antiviral agents and vaccines for indications beyond the red-hot hepatitis C indication highlight the infectious diseases track at this year’s Therapeutic Area Partnerships conference.

iTherX, a San Diego-based pharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of a class of therapies for hepatitis C, has elected Dr Stefan Zeuzem chair of its scientific and clinical advisory board. He is chief of the department of medicine and professor of Medicine at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Hospital in Frankfurt, Germany. iTherX' lead programme, ITX-5061, is in Phase Ib trials to evaluate antiviral activity and safety in patients with hepatitis C.

Investors' and Big Pharmas' hitherto frosty view of gene-based medicines may be starting to thaw, at least in places, warmed by clinical progress and a smattering of deals. Is there any real potential in this market? Until the first FDA approval, no-one's expecting any real heat. But there are companies which are enjoying limited success in the early stages, whose experience most likely reflects where at least the near-term potential of gene-based medicines lie.

When other firms are arguing the importance of chemically biased libraries and proteomics firms are retooling their business models to address a lack of adequate funding, NeoGenesis Pharmaceuticals is doubling down its bets on the company's "let the biology be damned" approach to identifying compounds. Money from the firm's existing deal flow covers 70-80% of the company's total cash outlays, including the 40-50% of overall spending attributed to internal drug development projects. NeoGenesis' hook: it takes proteins merely associated with disease and applies its methodologies to pick compounds that show high affinity and selectivity to the target, irrespective of the target's function. The strategy doesn't change the criteria for a good drug, but re-organizes the process to push downstream the need to address complex questions of biology.