We have an extensive history, that dates back to the UK Common Cold Unit in Salisbury which ran human challenge studies from 1946 until 1989.
The facility was a former military hospital that was donated by Harvard University and began human challenge studies to try to find a cure for influenza.
Our company’s founders, Professor John Oxford, worked at the Common Cold Unit alongside Dr David Tyrell, and after it closed, went on to setup Retroscreen Virology Limited out of Queens Mary University in 1989.
Retroscreen, renamed hVIVO in 2015 as part of its IPO on the London Stock Exchange, continues its challenging study work right up to the present day.
We are now the world leader in providing human challenge studies to test infectious and respiratory products and we have the widest portfolio of challenge models available in influenza (A & B), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), human rhinovirus (HRV), asthma, COPD, cough, malaria, COVID-19 and most recently hMPV.
A number of the same techniques used at the Common Cold Unit are still used by us today, though needless to say they have modernised.
