Candidate: OYA1

Category: ANTIVIRAL

Type: Broad-spectrum antiviral showing activity in lab-based assays against SARS-CoV-2 and MERS-CoV, as well as dual target-specific antiviral activity against filoviruses such as Ebola. OYA1 won IND approval in the 1960s as a candidate to treat cancer, but showed a lack of efficacy.

Status: OyaGen on March 11 announced it will further study OYA1 for COVID-19 following unpublished positive results from collaborative research with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ (NIAID) Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick, MD. The research, OyaGen said, suggested strong dose-dependent antiviral activity of its lead compound OYA1 against live SARS-CoV-2, based on in cell culture infectivity studies, the company said, adding that it will conduct further studies.

“The company anticipates that inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 using OYA1 will serve as a stop-gap treatment until appropriate vaccines are developed,” OyaGen added.


COVID-19: 200 Candidates and Counting

To navigate through the >200 potential therapeutic and vaccine options for COVID-19, GEN has grouped the candidates into four broad categories based on their developmental and (where applicable) clinical progress:

FRONT RUNNER – the most promising therapeutics/vaccines based on clinical progress, favorable data or both.

DEFINITELY MAYBE – earlier phases with promising partners, or more advanced candidates in development that have generated uneven data

KEEPING AN EYE ON… – interesting technology, attracting notable partners, or both, but preliminary data.

TOO SOON TO TELL – longshots pending additional experimental and/or clinical data.

GEN has also tagged the most common treatment types:

● ANTIVIRAL
● VAX
● ANTIBODY
● RNA

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