Business
Innovation Pharmaceuticals’ Brilacidin Inhibits Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) by Almost 90% at the Lowest Concentration Tested to Date in a Human Lung Cell Line
Innovation Pharmaceuticals’ Brilacidin Inhibits Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) by Almost 90% at the Lowest Concentration Tested to Date in a Human Lung Cell Line.
About this update from Innovation Pharmaceuticals Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"\n WAKEFIELD, Mass., July 20, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Innovation Pharmaceuticals (OTCQB:IPIX) (“the Company”), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, reports today receiving new data from ongoing laboratory testing being conducted at a U.S. Regional Biocontainment Laboratory (RBL). The data is helping to inform the planned Phase 2 clinical trial of Brilacidin for COVID-19, targeted to commence in Q4 2020. Recently released in vitro data showed Brilacidin exhibited a potent inhibitory effect on SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus responsible for COVID-19, in a human lung epithelial cell line—reducing viral load by 95 percent and 97 percent at two efficacious concentrations tested, compared to control (DMSO). The new data, using the same assay method, reveal Brilacidin exhibited a similarly potent inhibitory effect against SARS-CoV-2 at an even lower concentration in the same human lung epithelial cell line. Brilacidin achieved approximately 90 percent inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 at a drug concentration that was one-half lower than previously tested. The lowest concentration of Brilacidin used in RBL testing to date is well below the clinically-achievable concentration based on the pharmacokinetics observed in the Company’s Phase 2b clinical trial of Brilacidin in Acute Bacterial Skin and Skin Structure Infections. Additional RBL testing will assess Brilacidin’s inhibition against SARS-CoV-2 in the human lung epithelial cell line at even lower concentrations to allow for accurate determination of Brilacidin IC50 and IC90 values—the drug concentration at which 50 percent and 90 percent of the virus is inhibited. IC90 rather than IC50 values are considered valuable measures of drug potency as they are more likely to reflect in vitro results translating to comparable results in humans. Brilacidin/Remdesivir™ To put the new RBL testing results in additional context, an article published in Nature showed that Gilead Sciences’ Remdesivir™ achieved 50 percent inhibition against SARS-CoV-2, in a time-of-addition experiment, at a concentration of 3.7 μM in Vero (animal) cells. Remdesivir™ has received attention worldwide as one of the few effective therapies for treating COVID-19, gaining varying levels of authorized use in the U.S., E.U., U.K., India, Singapore, Japan, and ...