On Aug. 4, 2020, Cocrystal Pharma announced the publication of preclinical animal studies of coronavirus antiviral compounds in the renowned medical journal, Science Translational Medicine.

The manuscript titled, “The 3C-like protease inhibitors with potent in-vitro inhibition against SARS-CoV-2 and therapeutic efficacy in MERS-CoV infected mice,” was published online in the 3 August 2020 Science Translational Medicine Journal. Authors of the published manuscript were Athri D. Rathnayake, Jian Zheng, Yunjeong Kim, Krishani Dinali Perera, Samantha Mackin, David Meyerholz, Maithri M. Kashipathy, Kevin P. Battaile, Scott Lovell, Stanley Perlman, William C. Groutas, Kyeong-Ok Chang.

Data presented in the publication is included in the Company’s two exclusive license agreements with Kansas State University Research Foundation (“KSURF”) for new coronavirus antiviral compounds with novel mechanism of action.

Under the license agreements with KSURF, Cocrystal has been granted an exclusive, royalty-bearing right and license to certain antiviral compounds for humans and small molecule therapeutic inhibitors against coronaviruses, picornaviruses and caliciviruses covered by patent rights controlled by KSURF. Cocrystal intends to continue development of these antiviral compounds for coronavirus. These licenses significantly expand and further advance the Company’s COVID-19 program by providing more targeted and potent compounds.

Cocrystal initiated its preclinical studies of COVID-19 inhibitors received from KSURF during Q2 2020. The Company has also recently identified additional inhibitors using its proprietary platform technology and anticipates the selection of its lead preclinical molecule by year end.