Curing the common cold

Although the average sufferer of the common cold may consider a cure as a Holy Grail for drug development, pursuing a product is not so simple. It requires finding a target that will work for treating the multiple viral strains responsible for colds. In addition, any prescription drug would compete with inexpensive OTC products already on the market to ameliorate symptoms.

To make the market approachable, Agouron Pharmaceuticals Inc. and ViroPharma Inc. are chipping away by initially treating patients who potentially would suffer more severely from infection...