Innovation Pharmaceuticals Submits Material Transf
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WAKEFIELD, MA – February 24, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) Innovation Pharmaceuticals (OTCQB:IPIX) (“the Company”), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, announced today the Company submitted a Material Transfer Agreement (MTA) with a leading U.S.-based virology laboratory to research its lead defensin mimetic drug candidate, Brilacidin as a potential novel coronavirus treatment. Brilacidin has demonstrated broad and robust antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory properties in multiple FDA clinical trials in different indications.
Under terms of the agreement, Brilacidin’s potential inhibition of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, is planned to be assessed.
Discussions also are underway with a government-funded virology laboratory in Asia, to assess Brilacidin across a range of RNA viruses. On a related note, the Company has submitted a preliminary summary of Brilacidin’s potential as a novel coronavirus treatment to the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), which is dedicated to rapidly identifying and funding medical countermeasures to the COVID-19 outbreak.
As previously released, and as supported in the academic literature, defensin-based therapeutics represent an attractive potential intervention to combat coronavirus infections given their innate multifaceted immunomodulatory properties. Brilacidin, and other defensin mimetics similar in structure, have been tested against numerous clinical isolates of both gram-positive and gram-negative infectious pathogens, with strong activity exhibited across multiple isolates. Enveloped viruses have also been tested, with moderate activity noted.