Three Additional Patients with Severe COVID-19 Tre

Three Additional Patients with Severe COVID-19 Treated with Leronlimab in New York Medical Center Bringing the Total to 10 Patients
Download as PDFMarch 30, 2020 6:00am EDT
VANCOUVER, Washington, March 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CytoDyn Inc. (OTC.QB: CYDY), (“CytoDyn” or the “Company", a late-stage biotechnology company developing leronlimab (PRO 140), a CCR5 antagonist with the potential for multiple therapeutic indications, announced today that an additional three critically ill COVID-19 patients have been treated with leronlimab. These additional patients increase the total to 10 patients receiving leronlimab treatment under an Emergency Investigational New Drug (EIND) granted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The treatment with leronlimab is targeted as a therapy for patients who experience respiratory complications as a result of contracting SARS-CoV-2 causing the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Leronlimab is believed to provide therapeutic benefit by enhancing the immune response while mitigating the “cytokine storm” that leads to morbidity and mortality in these patients. The laboratory evaluation of the first four patients treated with leronlimab revealed that the immune profile in these patients approached normal levels and the levels of cytokines involved in the cytokine storm (including IL-6 and TNF alpha) were much improved. The results of the three additional patients are expected this week.

Jacob Lalezari, M.D., Interim Chief Medical Officer of CytoDyn, commented, “The preliminary results observed in patients who were severely ill with COVID-19 and treated with leronlimab are encouraging. Although the data set is still small, we saw fairly rapid and positive laboratory responses in all 4 patients treated, and in three of the 4 patients these laboratory results were associated with a favorable clinical outcome. We eagerly await the results of additional patients treated under the FDA’s emergency IND program, as well as the results of several randomized clinical trials about to start.”

Nader Pourhassan, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of CytoDyn, added, “We remain encouraged and hopeful that leronlimab will help patients from this devastating and relentless disease. We will aggressively pursue treatment for COVID-19 patients, and to explore leronlimab’s role in helping to alleviate the impending burden of supply chain and institutional capacity issues.”