Candidates: Neumifil™ and other Carbohydrate Vinding Modules (mCBMs)

Types: First-in-class multivalent mCBM generated using company’s proprietary GlycoTarge™ platform

Status: Pneumagen on April 28 announced results from three in vitro studies into preventing coronavirus infections including SARS-CoV-2 infection. In the studies, conduicted separately at Public Health England’s Porton facility, and the University of Glasgow’s MRC Centre for Virus Research, Pneumagen’s mCBMs were found to reduce the number of SARS-CoV-2 plaques in these assays when the mCBMs were used in both prevention and treatment of infection.

Neumifil’s novel mechanism of action entails masking glycan receptors in patients’ airways thereby preventing the entry of the virus. Pneumagen says that approach could revolutionize the treatment of respiratory tract infections (RTIs) by providing clinicians with the opportunity to offer patients total protection against any circulating viral strain.

“Our goal is now to rapidly begin clinical testing for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19,” Pneumagen CEO Douglas Thomson said in a statement.

In an earlier study, a plaque reduction assay also demonstrated antiviral activity for mCBMs with a different clinically relevant coronavirus that can cause the common cold

Neumifil, is already being developed for the universal treatment of RTIs, including Influenza Virus (IFV) and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), and now coronaviruses.


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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