e-Therapeutics PLC (LON:ETX) shares rose on Monday as the firm said it has begun experimental testing on the first set of compounds for the treatment of coronavirus (COVID-19) identified using its proprietary network-driven drug discovery (NDD) platform.
The AIM-listed firm said the initial compound set, which it believes has the potential to address both viral replication and the associated excessive immune response, will be tested by WuXi AppTec utilising its relevant cell-based assays.
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e-Therapeutics added that it will continue to pursue an NDD approach to identify approved and known drugs that could be “rapidly repositioned” for the treatment of coronavirus.
“Importantly, we are focusing on therapeutic strategies that target host systems, therefore minimising the risk of resistance and potentially being effective for the treatment of other viral conditions”, the company said.
"I am pleased to report progress on our contribution to the fight against [coronavirus], advancing from the computational stage of our project into experimental work. We are pursuing a multipronged effort for this project and will continue to provide updates as further data becomes available", e-Therapeutics executive chairman Ali Mortazavi said in a statement
e-Therapeutics shares surged 13.5% higher to 17.4p in early trading on Monday.