On Mar. 6, 2020, Innovation Pharmaceuticals continues to receive inquiries regarding the potential of Brilacidin, the Company’s novel defensin mimetic compound, to treat COVID-19, more generically called “coronavirus,” given the urgent worldwide need to discover treatments and vaccines for the deadly epidemic. According to Worldometer.info, more than 100,000 cases of COVID-19 have been diagnosed worldwide with over 3,400 deaths attributed to the virus.

In the U.S., patients in 18 states have tested positive, or are presumptively positive, for COVID-19. On Thursday, Congress passed an $8.3 billion emergency bill to release funds for fighting COVID-19. Innovation Pharmaceuticals has submitted a preliminary summary of Brilacidin’s therapeutic potential as a novel coronavirus treatment to the U.S. Government’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and is already collaborating with scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for review of Brilacidin as a potential COVID-19 intervention.

Innovation disclosed last week that the Company signed a Material Transfer Agreement (MTA) to provide Brilacidin to one of the U.S.’s 12 Regional Biocontainment Labs (RBLs) for evaluation against COVID-19.