22 August 2019 - - Five abstracts, including one late-breaker, highlighting data from US-based biotechnology company Cidara Therapeutics, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: CDTX) Cloudbreak antiviral program have been accepted for presentation at the Options X for the Control of Influenza conference taking place August 28-September 1 in Singapore, the company said.

Options X is the largest international conference exclusively dedicated to influenza prevention, control and treatment, including seasonal flu and pandemic preparedness, and the premier event of the International Society of Influenza and other Respiratory Virus Diseases (ISIRV).

Cidara's presentations will feature data from preclinical studies evaluating the antiviral activity of CB-012, the first AVC candidate generated by its Cloudbreak anti-infective immunotherapy platform, against seasonal and pandemic influenza A and influenza B strains.

Cidara's Cloudbreak AVCs are potent, small-molecule antivirals conjugated to the Fc domain of a human antibody. This design allows AVCs to work in multiple ways.

In addition to directly targeting and inhibiting viral replication, AVCs focus the immune system on the infection, similar to how certain cancer immunotherapies engage the immune system to destroy cancer cells.

With this novel approach, Cidara believes its AVCs have the potential to protect for an entire flu season with a single dose, with or without concurrent vaccination, and to provide a highly potent treatment for seasonal and pandemic influenza.

Influenza, or flu, is a respiratory infection caused by influenza viruses. The flu virus can cause mild to severe illness and, at times, can lead to death.

Young children, the elderly (people aged 65 years and older), pregnant women and immunocompromised patients are more prone to infection, but even healthy people are at risk of infection with seasonal flu.

While influenza vaccines are critical to global health, they have limited efficacy and must be redesigned every year based on a prediction of the next season's dominant circulating strains.

On average, vaccines are only 40 % effective, with lower rates in young children and the elderly.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that as many as 646,000 people may die from influenza each year worldwide.

According to CDC estimates for the United States, approximately 50m people became ill from the flu and almost 80,000 people died in the 2017-18 season alone.

Cidara is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel anti-infectives that have the potential to transform the standard of care and save or improve patients' lives.

Cidara is currently advancing its novel echinocandin antifungal, rezafungin acetate, in a Phase 3 clinical trial for the first-line treatment of candidemia and/or invasive candidiasis (ReSTORE).

A second Phase 3 trial of once-weekly rezafungin for prophylaxis against invasive fungal infections in patients undergoing allogeneic blood and marrow transplantation (ReSPECT) is planned pending adequate funding and approval from the relevant regulatory authorities.

In addition to its robust rezafungin clinical program, Cidara is applying its proprietary Cloudbreak platform to develop antiviral conjugates for the prevention and treatment of influenza and other viral diseases.

The Cloudbreak platform is designed to discover compounds that both directly kill pathogens and direct a patient's immune system to attack and eliminate pathogens. Cidara is headquartered in San Diego, California.