On Mar. 30, 2021, CytoDyn announced further results from its CD12 trial of severe-to-critically ill patients with COVID-19. Upon further statistical analysis of the critically ill population (hospitalized patients receiving invasive mechanical ventilation, it was revealed that when leronlimab was added to standard of care, leronlimab decreased mortality at 14 days by 82%. Patients who received leronlimab were over five times more likely to be alive at day 14 than those who received SoC only.

Furthermore, leronlimab administration was associated with a 400% improvement in the ranking on the 7-point ordinal scale at 14 days when given in conjunction with SoC (p=.021, N=62) in the critically ill population, which provides direct evidence of tangible patient improvement. The Company believes this data provides an opportunity to expound upon the advice and expertise of our Key Opinion Leaders to optimize the dosing of leronlimab for further clinical benefit.

he FDA has granted a FastTrack designation to CytoDyn for two potential indications of leronlimab for critical illnesses. The first indication is combination therapy with HAART for HIV-infected patients, and the second is for metastatic triple-negative breast cancer. Leronlimab is an investigational humanized IgG4 mAb that blocks CCR5, a cellular receptor important in HIV infection, tumor metastases, and other diseases, including NASH. Leronlimab has completed 11 clinical trials in over 1,200 people and met its primary endpoints in a pivotal Phase 3 trial (leronlimab combined with standard antiretroviral therapies in HIV-infected treatment-experienced patients).

In the setting of HIV/AIDS, leronlimab is a viral-entry inhibitor; it masks CCR5, thus protecting healthy T cells from viral infection by blocking the predominant HIV (R5) subtype from entering those cells. Leronlimab has been the subject of nine clinical trials, each of which demonstrated that leronlimab could significantly reduce or control HIV viral load in humans. The leronlimab antibody appears to be a powerful antiviral agent leading to potentially fewer side effects and less frequent dosing requirements compared with daily drug therapies currently in use.

Research has shown that CCR5 may play a role in tumor invasion, metastases, and tumor microenvironment control in the setting of cancer. Increased CCR5 expression is an indicator of disease status in several cancers. Published studies have shown that blocking CCR5 can reduce tumor metastases in laboratory and animal models of aggressive breast and prostate cancer. Leronlimab reduced human breast cancer metastasis by more than 98% in a murine xenograft model. CytoDyn is, therefore, conducting a Phase 1b/2 human clinical trial in metastatic triple-negative breast cancer and was granted Fast Track designation by the FDA in May 2019.