On Dec. 24, 2020, AIM ImmunoTech announced that the post-COVID-19 ‘Long Hauler’ portion of the active AMP-511 Expanded Access Program (EAP) protocol received approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) for a public notification of potential patient enrollment. Eligible patients enrolled in the trial receive treatment with AIM’s flagship pipeline drug Ampligen.

AIM announced in October that the myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) clinical trial received IRB approval to include patients previously diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 – which causes the disease COVID-19 – but who now demonstrate post-acute infection chronic fatigue-like symptoms. These patients are commonly referred to as Long Haulers because of the persistence of their post-COVID-19 symptoms.

Ampligen is AIM’s TLR3 agonist immune-system modulator. It is approved in Argentina as the world’s first therapy for severe Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and is the only late-stage drug in the U.S. development pipeline for ME/CFS.

Enrollment is an important milestone in AIM’s program to develop Ampligen as a therapy for the millions of people who medical experts predict will suffer from SARS-CoV-2-induced chronic fatigue, including many with brain fog. Nearly 70 million COVID-19 cases have been recorded during the ongoing global pandemic. Studies show that patients who recover from COVID-19 can report the persistence of symptoms. In addition, many survivors of the first SARS-CoV-1 epidemic in 2003 continued to report classic chronic fatigue-like symptoms after recovering from the acute illness. In fact, approximately 27% of survivors in a JAMA Internal Medicine study met the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome.

Given the massive pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2, a virus with almost identical genetic sequence and similar in pathogenesis to the first SARS virus with persuasive emerging evidence supporting COVID-19’s SARS-CoV-2 induced chronic fatigue is following a similar pattern. The development of an effective therapy is a critical unmet public health need for patients with acute SARS-CoV-2 infection-induced classic chronic fatigue symptoms.