On May 19, 2020, Innovation Pharma announced that its anti-SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) drug candidate, Brilacidin, in an in vitro experiment using VERO cells, reduced the viral titer (load) of SARS-CoV-2 by 75 percent after only 1 hour of preincubation prior to infection at a concentration of 10ﾵM as compared to vehicle control. Additional time-dependent and concentration-dependent experiments are underway to further delineate Brilacidinﾒs virucidal properties against SARS-CoV-2.

These statistically significant lab results strongly support Brilacidin’s prophylactic treatment potential given the drug’s potent and rapid virucidal activity—a unique ability, different from any other known drug currently in development to treat COVID-19, to inactivate the novel coronavirus prior to host cell entry and subsequent viral replication. A majority of antiviral agents targeting SARS-CoV-2 attempt to inhibit viral replication rather than completely eliminating the virus (virustatic versus virucidal).

Additional time-dependent and concentration-dependent experiments are underway to further delineate Brilacidin’s virucidal properties against SARS-CoV-2. Brilacidin anti-SARS-CoV-2 research is part of ongoing antiviral studies that are being conducted at a U.S. Regional Biocontainment Laboratory (RBL). An earlier 16-hour post-infection experiment, in VERO cells, showed Brilacidin exhibited a dose-dependent reduction in SARS-CoV-2 infectious viral titers.

The Company is encouraged by Brilacidin’s considerable antiviral potential and believes that its use as a possible potent prophylactic and therapeutic antiviral agent for SARS-CoV-2, and other viruses, is warranted. Separately, the Company and laboratory researchers (from a different testing facility) agreed that Brilacidin as a vaccine would not be studied further at this time.

While the vaccine pathway remains of interest, the Company is prioritizing Brilacidin’s clinical development as a potential novel COVID-19 treatment, and thus is taking steps to rapidly advance Brilacidin into human trials.