Washington, Sep 8 (IANS): There could soon be a single dose therapy to treat influenza in the US.

Researchers have found a single injected dose of the neuraminidase inhibitor (NAI) Peramivir to be safe and effective at alleviating influenza symptoms.

It can palliate symptoms, including fever and viral shedding, when administered within 48 hours of the onset of symptoms, an analysis of phase 2 and phase 3 clinical trials showed.

"Based on clinical data, Peramivir is the first neuraminidase inhibitor (NAI) that has shown to be safe and effective as a single dose therapy for patients with acute, uncomplicated influenza," said Rich Whitley from the University of Alabama, Birmingham in the US.

In two placebo controlled studies (one Phase 2 and one Phase 3), involving a combined 427 adults, a single dose of Peramivir was given as an injection within 48 hours of the onset of flu-like symptoms.

Peramivir was found to be generally safe and well tolerated and effectively reduced the duration of symptoms in Peramivir-treated patients.

Compared to patients who received placebo, Peramivir reduced median time to alleviation of symptoms by 22 hours, time to resolution of fever by 24 hours and the amount of nasal viral shedding over the first two days following treatment.

Peramivir has been approved in Japan and South Korea since 2010.

If approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Peramivir would be the only single dose, injection treatment for influenza in the US and would be the first NAI approved in more than a decade.

The findings were presented Saturday at the 54th Interscience Conference on Anti-microbial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) at Washington, DC.