On May 6, 2020, Laurent Pharmaceuticals announced that it has obtained the approval from Health Canada to initiate RESOLUTION, a Phase 2 randomized placebo-controlled trial testing once-a-day oral LAU-7b as a potential drug candidate to help combat the COVID-19 disease. The trial was planned to start in multiple hospitals in Canada with approximately 200 hospitalized COVID-19 patients enrolled for a treatment duration of 14 days.

Laurent Pharmaceuticals is developing LAU-7b for its capacity to trigger the resolution phase of inflammation, a natural mechanism that keeps the inflammatory response of the body under control without interfering with its immune role (a “pro-resolving” effect). LAU-7b is believed to interfere with coronavirus replication and host avoidance by acting on the same lipid-modulating pathways it uses for the pro-resolving effect.

The RESOLUTION trial follows the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) Master Protocol for COVID-19 clinical studies and will measure the patient health status on a 7-point ordinal scale as primary outcome. Secondary outcomes include various measurements of disease progression, duration of hospitalization and quality of life.