Pharmaceuticals (OTCQB:IPIX) (“the Company”), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing Brilacidin, a Host Defense Protein (HDP) mimetic representing a new class of drug with antiviral, anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties, is pleased to announce that the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations (FDA) has approved the Company’s Investigational New Drug (IND) application to proceed with initiation of a Phase 2 clinical trial of Brilacidin in hospitalized patients with COVID-19.
Brilacidin has been shown in vitro to be effective against different SARS-CoV-2 strains (Washington and Italian), as well as multiple human coronaviruses, making it less likely to be affected by emerging mutations (in the United Kingdom, Denmark and South Africa) and further differentiating the drug from other COVID-19 treatments in development today.
With its unique HDP mimetic properties, Brilacidin has potential to exert antiviral activity across SARS-CoV-2 variants. The sudden emergence of highly contagious new variants of the coronavirus illuminates the urgent need for drugs, like Brilacidin, with a different mechanism of action from current antivirals to get this resilient virus under control.