Some herpes carriers will be familiar with drugs like acyclovir and Valtrex. Both are antiviral drugs based on the same chemical. Both are used to control herpes. But it may surprise you to learn the basic ingredients of acyclovir-based antivirals have remained unchanged for more than twenty years, and in that time no commercially available drug has significantly improved on the original formula designed by Nobel-prize-winning biochemist Gertrude B. Elion.

Although acyclovir is an impressive drug with few side-effects, it is far from perfect. Carriers can still transmit herpes while taking the drug, although the risk is significantly decreased. It is also not effective in every case.

After decades of quiet, recent advances in science may mean that a range of new antiviral drugs will be available in the near future. Already companies like Vironova are talking about “broad-spectrum” antivirals — a single drug that takes action against all kinds of different viruses, in the same way that antibiotics take action against all kinds of bacteria. Other drugs. like Bavituximab, take a similar approach, targeting and destroying many kinds of virus in the body. Of course, neither of these drugs are known to enter the human nerve, where herpes hides out most of the time, but they could be significantly more effective than acyclovir in suppressing the virus.

In an interesting report on state-of-the-art antivirals, Erik De Clercq says that the development of antiviral drugs is now “progressing at the pace antibiotics were 30 years ago.”