On Aug. 4, 2020, Mateon Therapeutics and Abiogenesis announced they will be working together with Abiogenesis to initiate ARTI-19 randomized, controlled, multi-site India clinical study of Artemisinin against COVID-19. This is part of the company’s humanitarian effort to fund the global, multi-country, observational trial to address the pandemic with Artemisinin. Given the known safety profile and the widespread availability of Artemisinin the company anticipates that clinical development of Artemisinin can be accelerated to effectively deal with the current COVID-19 pandemic.

The company was inviting nonprofits such as non-government organizations to participate in this trial if they have the logistics to participate in observational trials and to distribute the Artemisinin in their home countries. The trial was expected to accrue a minimum of 3,000 patients. The company was engaged in India, Africa and Latin America.

This study was designed to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and effectiveness of Artemisinin when used in combination with standard of care (SoC) in mild and moderate COVID-19 patients. Artemisinin is an anti-viral agent with demonstrated activity against SARS-CoV-2 in-vitro comparable to remdesivir, however, with higher safety index. By targeting the host protein, TGF-β, Artemisinin avoids resistance mutations which could render vaccine and/or therapeutics against viral protein(s) ineffective.