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Anixa Biosciences and OntoChem Announce Discovery of First Covid-19 Therapeutic Candidate
SAN JOSE, Calif., May 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Anixa Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: ANIX), a biotechnology company focused on the treatment, prevention, and
About this update from Anixa Biosciences, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"SAN JOSE, Calif., May 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Anixa Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: ANIX), a biotechnology company focused on the treatment, prevention, and diagnosis of cancer and infectious diseases, today announced that it, with partner OntoChem GmbH, has identified its first therapeutic candidate against Covid-19, and has advanced the compound into biological testing. \n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \nThis is the first therapeutic candidate identified from the strategic partnership recently established by Anixa and OntoChem to evaluate over 1.2 billion molecules through an in silico study to identify potential therapies for patients infected by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19 (https://ir.anixa.com/press-releases/detail/947/). Anixa believes that drugs targeting the molecular biology of SARS-CoV-2 will produce more powerful medicines than the drugs currently being evaluated in trials, most of which were repurposed from other diseases.\nThis first compound is expected to disrupt the interaction of the virus's endoribonuclease with a host human protein that is necessary for the virus to replicate upon infection. Disrupting this protein-protein interaction is expected to dramatically reduce or eliminate the virus's ability to cause disease. The biological testing will initially determine how well this compound binds to the endoribonuclease, and then how well this translates into reducing viral replication in human host cells.\nDr. Amit Kumar, President and CEO of Anixa Biosciences stated, \"While we continue to screen the full libraries of compounds, we have already identified a potential drug to be evaluated in biological testing against SARS-CoV-2. This is in contrast with most existing efforts which are repurposed compounds. With the urgency of the Covid-19 pandemic, we are pleased that this program is moving forward at such a rapid pace. As the study continues, we expect to identify several additional drug candidates that will be evaluated biologically, after which we will choose which compound to advance into animal testing. If all goes as planned, drug discovery activities could be completed within six months.\"\n\"We are excited to have quickly identified our first 'hit' compound, and we anticipate this program will continue to advance rapidly,\" stated Dr. Lutz Weber, CEO of OntoChem. \"To our knowledge, this project is s...