· BARDA prioritizing the development of host-targeting and pathogen-agnostic therapeutics for treatment of hospitalized COVID-19 and other serious diseases of the lung
WAKEFIELD, MA / November 15, 2022 Innovation Pharmaceuticals (OTCQB:IPIX) (“the Company”), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, today announced Brilacidin antiviral and anti-inflammatory data has been accepted for a scientific poster presentation at the 2022 Chemical and Biological Defense Science & Technology Conference (CBD S&T), December 6-9, 2022, based on research conducted at George Mason University’s Center for Infectious Disease Research.
The CBD S&T is sponsored by the U.S. government’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s (DTRA) and provides an interactive forum for chemical and biological defense community members from around the world to discuss pressing chem-bio threats. The Brilacidin research has been included as part of the “Broad-Spectrum Therapeutics For Viral Diseases: A Medical Countermeasure Platform For Emerging Threats” session. Data generated in alphaviruses and bunyaviruses showed that Brilacidin possesses both antiviral and anti-inflammatory properties, reinforcing its potential as a broad-spectrum antiviral. The conference abstract can be accessed here.
In related news, results from the Company’s Phase 2 study of Brilacidin in hospitalized cases of moderate-to-severe COVID-19 (NCT04784897) are being prepared for publication and will initially be made available as a preprint. Among the study’s findings, beneficial treatment effects were observed in subgroups of patients with the highest baseline values for key COVID-19 biomarkers, e.g., SARS-CoV-2 viral load, C-Reactive Protein (CRP), and IL-6. Under compassionate use of Brilacidin in critical cases of COVID-19, investigators observed more stable disease with improvements evident on chest x-rays and in disease biomarkers, such as CRP and ferritin.
Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) scientists recently published a paper on lessons learned from COVID-19 trials assessing immunomodulatory drugs in patients with severe forms of the disease, Acute Lung Injury (ALI) and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). With emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants (and sub-variants) increasingly able to evade monoclonal antibody treatments, as well as COVID-19 vaccines, BARDA has identified an unmet clinical need for developing host-targeting and pathogen-agnostic -- traits Brilacidin is exhibiting -- therapeutics for treatment of hospitalized cases of COVID-19 and other serious diseases of the lungs. Biomarker-based trial design (enrollment restricted to specific subgroups) was highlighted by BARDA as a critical step to increase the likelihood of achieving clinical efficacy of investigational drugs:
“Identifying distinct patient subgroups based on immune profiles across the disease trajectory, regardless of the causative pathogen, may accelerate evaluating host-directed therapeutics in trials of ALI/ARDS and related conditions (e.g., sepsis).”
The Company believes the promising results achieved in Phase 2 testing and based on compassionate use of Brilacidin in COVID-19 are supportive of additional testing in lung diseases, to further characterize Brilacidin’s clinical benefit. A future update is planned providing new data and insights on Brilacidin’s potential as a novel antifungal agent.
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