On Apr. 5, 2021, Anixa Biosciences announced that based on Proof of Concept animal study results, it was progressing to the next stage of development of its potential anti-viral therapy for Covid-19. Anixa and OntoChem are seeking to develop an orally administrable, room-temperature stable, anti-viral therapy against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.

The partners have recently completed POC studies in a Syrian Hamster model of the Covid-19 disease. Two potential compounds were evaluated as well as Remdesivir. Data showed that administration of the drugs to infected hamsters did not cause any noticeable adverse effects, and monitoring of weight and general animal behavior demonstrated comparable efficacy of both Anixa compounds as well as Remdesivir. Viral shedding data and autopsied lung inflammation analysis was inconclusive for all drugs tested, perhaps due to the animal model being inadequate for such data.

Anixa is a publicly-traded biotechnology company developing a number of programs addressing cancer and infectious disease. Anixa’s therapeutics portfolio includes a cancer immunotherapy program which uses a novel type of CAR-T, known as chimeric endocrine receptor T-cell (CER-T) technology, and a Covid-19 therapeutics program focused on inhibiting certain viral protein function. The company’s vaccine portfolio includes a vaccine to prevent breast cancer, and specifically triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), the most deadly form of the disease, and a vaccine to prevent ovarian cancer.