BetterLife Pharma Inc (CSE:BETR) (OTCQB:BETRF) (FRA:NPAU) has chosen Equilab International as the contract research organization (CRO) to manage upcoming clinical trials of its proprietary formulation of Interferon alpha2b (AP-003) in mild to moderate cases of the coronavirus (COVID-19).
The Vancouver-based company believes that its inhaled IFN-α2b, AP-003, could lessen the severity and duration of COVID-19 and decrease the need for hospital admissions.
Equilab, based in Jakarta, is an internationally recognized CRO with a strong team of clinical and analytical researchers that have already conducted clinical trials in COVID-19 patients, the company said. BetterLife and Equilab will conduct the placebo-controlled blinded trials at Equilab’s 75-bed clinical facility.
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BetterLife also recently changed the location of its proposed trials.
“We are very pleased to work with Equilab’s team to conduct our studies in COVID-19 patients,” CEO Ahmad Doroudian said in a statement. “We changed the site of our proposed AP-003 clinical trials in COVID-19 patients from Australia to Indonesia. There are more than 10,000 cases of COVID-19 infections reported each day in Indonesia as Australia records less than 20 per day.”
BetterLife’s treatment is inhaled, so it targets the airways directly, unlike many other treatments being evaluated.
“In the fight against COVID, the best approach may well be a combination of IFN-α2b with Remdesivir and/or the monoclonal antibodies,” Doroudian said. “Most treatments are expensive and not administered into the airways where the virus resides. We believe that an inhaled IFN-α2b, such as the company’s AP-003 that directly targets the airways, will have widespread utility as a treatment and preventative measure against COVID-19 and other such viral infections. While millions of people around the world may well have access to a vaccine, eventually, there will be hundreds of thousands for whom the vaccine may well not work and will require effective treatment options such as AP-003.”
Contact Andrew Kessel at andrew.kessel@proactiveinvestors.com
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