The Directors of Biotron Limited (ASX: BIT) are pleased to announce that the Company's lead clinical asset, BIT225, has demonstrated substantial and clinically meaningful efficacy against SARS-CoV-2 in a series of animal and cell-based studies performed at The SCRIPPS Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA.
BIT225 was tested in a COVID-19 mouse model (K18-hACE2). These mice have been engineered to be infectable by SARS-CoV-2 which then produces a range of pathologies including pulmonary disease. This model is routinely used to assess the ability of drugs to target SARS-CoV-2 and treat COVID-19 disease.
The study in the COVID mice showed that BIT225 given orally (by mouth) significantly reduced virus load in the lungs of treated mice when compared with control mice that were given drug-free control material (known as vehicle control). There was also a reduction in virus in the blood. The reduction in virus was dose-dependent - i.e. reduction in viral load was greater at the higher dose.
Increased levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines ('cytokine storm') are linked to severe illness and death in people infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus. Controlling this cytokine storm is essential for successful treatment of COVID-19.
BIT225 significantly reduced all assayed pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, including IL-6, IL-1α, IL-1β, TNF-α, TGF-β and MCP-1, in the lungs and blood of BIT225- treated mice compared to control mice.
During the course of infection with SARS-CoV-2, K18 mice generally develop severe disease that is reflected in the loss of body weight. The animals treated with BIT225 did not lose weight throughout the study and, in fact, significantly increased their weight in line with growth expectations of the age of the animals.
The impact of BIT225 on the proinflammatory cytokines and on overall health, indicated by preventing loss of body weight, indicates clinically significant benefit of BIT225.
In addition to the in vivo animal study, BIT225 was tested in an in vitro study in cell cultures to assess the ability of the drug to inhibit the highly infectious delta strain. The data showed that BIT225 reduced the delta virus in the cell cultures by more than 99.99% (over 4 logs reduction).
The in vivo study demonstrates that BIT225 is highly effective antiviral agent and protects the animals from severe disease. The in vitro study demonstrates that BIT225 is also active against the highly infectious delta strain of SARS-CoV-2.
BIT225 belongs to a new class of antiviral drugs known as viroporin inhibitors. It targets key viral-encoded proteins known as viroporins that are central to establishing and maintaining infections through modulation of the body's immune system.
BIT225 is Biotron's lead antiviral clinical-stage, investigational, small molecule antiviral drug. It is an oral drug, suitable for once-a-day dosing and has a well characterised safety profile. The drug has been evaluated in nine clinical trials involving healthy volunteers, patients with HIV-1 infection, patients co-infected with Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and HIV-1 and patients with HCV (as monotherapy and in combination with pegylated interferon-alfa and ribavirin). Formal pre-clinical studies have assessed safety over 24 weeks of dosing.
Recently the Company commenced two Phase 2 HIV-1 trials in Australia and Thailand to assess the impact of BIT225 on the HIV-1 reservoir and key markers of improved health outcomes.
Biotron is now in discussions with its USA advisors and consultants to expedite progression of BIT225 into human trials for treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection. The Company has sufficient drug product on hand after recently completing the manufacture of several kilograms of additional clinical grade (cGMP) drug.
The Chair of Biotron's Scientific Advisory Board, Professor Rob Murphy, Professor of Medicine and Biomedical Engineering, John P. Phair Professor of Infectious Diseases at Northwestern University, Chicago, said...
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