How did we start?

Professors Howard Thomas and Mark Thursz of the Department of Medicine Imperial College have been involved in treating viral hepatitis with interferon for almost 30 years.

In 2000, Roche funded a grant of several million to Imperial College, London and Oxford University to investigate the genetics of the natural history and treatment response in viral Hepatitis. This was called the Rio (Roche, Imperial, Oxford) Programme.

In 2003, when this programme came successfully to an end, the investigations gave rise to the formation of the company Riotech Pharmaceuticals Ltd. This was initially focused on the development of interferon - based antiviral therapies for various viral infections.

2003 – 2007: The company focused its attention on the development of a novel interferon, alpha 8 interferon.

2007 – Present: a change of direction was made to develop drugs directed to amplifying the patient’s own interferon response by inhibiting an intracellular enzyme Phosphodiesterase 12 (PDE12), which regulates this response and when inhibited, leads to the inhibition of RNA virus replication.

In December 2008, Dr Ian Matthews a drug discovery scientist with 30 years of major pharmaceutical company and small biotechnology company experience, and his company ChemOvation, came on board. ChemOvation, as a CRO, had developed medicinal compounds for a number of small biotech companies across a number of different therapeutic areas. The work with ChemOvation led to the development of a series of compounds and two lead compounds that inhibit PDE-12.

By 2015, having collaborated with several departments at Imperial College, Oxford University, the University of Texas and the National Institute of Health, USA, Riotech had demonstrated wide antiviral activity against RNA viruses including Dengue Virus, West Nile Virus, Influenza Virus, Bovine Diarrhea Virus, Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis Virus, Respiratory Syncytial Virus and Hepatitis C Virus. The Dengue work was funded by a European Union grant.

In 2020, in response to the Sars-cov-2 virus  pandemic, the  lead compounds were tested and found to be active against the virus in a cellular model developed at Public Health England, Porton Down, Salisbury.

Further work to confirm the activity is ongoing.