Coronavirus Treatment Breakthrough: New Scottish Drug Appears Promising In Fighting COVID-19

The drug Neumifil and other first-in-class multivalent Carbohydrate-Binding Modules (mCBMs) appear promising in both prevention and treatment of COVID-19, according to the results from three new studies.

Pneumagen Ltd, a spinout of the University of St Andrews collaborated with Public Health England’s Porton facility and the University of Glasgow's MRC Center for Virus Research to test the activity of its mCBMs against the coronavirus. Pneumagen’s mCBMs were found to decrease the number of SARS-CoV-2 plaques in the in vitro assays. The firm focused on treating infectious diseases and developing oncology treatments by targeting the human glycome. Pneumagen now wants to start clinical testing for preventing and treating COVID-19.

"Today's positive results from in vitro studies of our mCBMs against coronaviruses show that glycan-binding has the potential to prevent and treat the infection. This further supports the value of our universal therapeutic modality to block access to lung cells of SARS-CoV-2, as well as other viruses, that cause respiratory tract infections, providing the potential for a pan-viral respiratory product. Our goal is now to rapidly begin clinical testing for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19," MedicalXpress quoted Douglas Thomson, CEO of Pneumagen as saying.

The firm’s current work on COVID-19 builds on its previous work with a different clinically relevant coronavirus that causes common cold where a plaque reduction meant antiviral activity exhibited by the drug. Neumifil is currently being developed for the universal treatment of respiratory tract infections such as the influenza virus as well as the respiratory syncytial virus.

How does Neumifil work?

The drug’s novel mechanism of action helps mask the glycan receptors in the patients’ airways and thereby prevents the entry of the virus. It has the potential to revolutionize the treatment of respiratory tract infections by offering total protection against any circulating viral strain. Pneumagen which is using its platform technology – GlycoTarge to develop these glycan targeted mCBMs derived from bacterial glycosidases aims to rapidly advance drug candidates into clinical testing to treat and prevent COVID-19.

Neumifil is a first-in-class mCBM40 being developed for the universal treatment of coronavirus infection. Intranasal administration of the drug in preclinical models has not only demonstrated prevention and treatment but also post-exposure prophylaxis of influenza virus and respiratory syncytial virus infections without any observed toxicity.