TPOXX, as the drug is marketed, is an antiviral currently approved for treatment of human smallpox in adults and children caused by the variola virus.
SAN DIEGO - UC San Diego will be one of several sites across the country to study the safety and efficacy of the drug tecovirimat as a potential treatment for human monkeypox.
"There is an urgent need for MPOX treatments and this study will help us determine whether tecovirimat should be one of them," said Dr. Susan Little, professor of medicine at UCSD School of Medicine and infectious disease specialist at UCSD Health, and co-director of AVRC and lead investigator of the UCSD trial.
The current monkeypox outbreak emerged in spring 2022 and has since spread throughout the world, with more than 75,000 cases in 109 countries and more than 28,000 cases in the United States. San Diego County has recorded 440 cases as of the most recent data. TPOXX is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat smallpox, but its safety and effectiveness against monkeypox -- or MPOX, as it is commonly referred to in the medical and research community -- is unknown. The virus belongs to the same family of viruses as variola virus. MPOX symptoms are similar to smallpox symptoms, but milder, and MPOX is rarely fatal. MPOX is not related to chickenpox.