Shark versus virus

Over the past 18 years, the aminosterol squalamine has changed corporate hands twice and been tried in indications ranging from cancer to age-related macular degeneration. Now, the academic who originally isolated the compound from dogfish shark liver thinks he has found a new use for squalamine as a broad-spectrum antiviral.¹

Michael Zasloff, dean of research and translational science at the Georgetown University Medical Center, identified squalamine in 1993. Magainin Pharmaceuticals Inc., a biotech cofounded by Zasloff, in-licensed the compound and positioned it as an angiogenesis inhibitor for cancer...