BetterLife Pharma Inc (CSE:BETR, OTCQB:BETRF). revealed early positive in vitro results of its proprietary inhaled interferon alpha-2b product, AP-00, from a preclinical study at Dr Stephen Barr’s Lab at the ImPaKT Facility, at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, in Western University, Ontario.
The Vancouver, British Columbia-based biotechnology company said early data on its recombinant human interferon alpha-2b (rhIFN⍺2b), or AP-003 product shows “potent anti-viral activity against the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant (up to 97% protection in human cells infected with the virus).”
The Delta SARS-CoV-2 variant (B.1.617.2, India outbreak) causes more infections and spreads faster than earlier forms of the virus and leads to more severe illness in unvaccinated people, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
READ: BetterLife Pharma enrolls first patient in interferon alpha-2b COVID-19 trial in Chile
Previously, the company said AP-003 showed “potent activity” against the Wuhan reference strain, Alpha (B.1.1.7, UK), and the Beta (B.1.351, South Africa) variants. Further studies are ongoing to validate these preliminary results and to test AP-003 activity against Gamma (Brazil), Lambda (Peru), and the recent C.1.2 (South Africa) variant, which contains mutations associated with increased transmissibility and the ability to evade antibodies therapy.
“The Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 is now the most common coronavirus (COVID-19) variant in the US, nearly two times as contagious as earlier variants, a great risk to unvaccinated people, and presents a challenge in developing therapeutics against the virus,” BetterLife CEO Dr Ahmad Doroudian said in a statement. “We are very pleased to see the early preclinical data confirming the high anti-viral activity of BetterLife’s rhIFN⍺2b against this variant of concern.”
An exploratory study in Wuhan, China, in COVID-19 patients, showed that patients treated with inhaled rhIFN⍺2b had a more rapid rate of viral clearance than patients in the comparator arm who did not receive inhaled rhIFN⍺2b.
As announced on September 22 this year, BetterLife and the Escuela de Medicina at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile have initiated a Phase 1-2 randomized placebo-controlled trial in COVID-19 patients in Chile. The trial tests BetterLife’s proprietary inhaled rhIFN⍺2b product, AP-003, versus placebo in early-stage COVID-19 patients.
BetterLife’s Dr Doroudian noted that COVID-19 is still a threat to the world population and its variants are a key challenge when developing therapeutics.
“The broad mechanism of action of interferon is such that our scientists hypothesized it could be equally effective against different variants of concern,” said Dr Doroudian. “We are very pleased to see this being confirmed by early preclinical data which takes us one step closer to the potential outcome of an easy to administer broad-acting treatment for early-stage COVID-19.”
Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com
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