BetterLife Pharma says early positive in vitro results show AP-003 has similar potent efficacy against coronavirus variants

BetterLife Pharma Inc (CSE:BETR) (OTCQB:BETRF) (FRA:NPAU) has announced early positive in vitro results of its SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) anti-viral, recombinant human interferon alpha-2b (rhIFN⍺2b or AP-003). 

The company said AP-003’s first proposed target indication is for people at higher risk to develop severe COVID-19 disease and the data are from the Dr Stephen Barr Laboratory and state-of-the-art ImPaKT Facility at Western University (UWO). 

In a statement, BetterLife said early data show potent and similar anti-viral activity against the COVID-19 Wuhan reference strain, Alpha (UK), and Beta (South Africa) variants. Further studies are ongoing to validate these early results and to test AP-003 activity against Gamma (Brazil), Delta (India) and Lambda (Peru) variants. 

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The rhIFN⍺2b, a Type I interferon, is a naturally occurring protein integral to the body’s first line of anti-viral defenses. 

BetterLife said there is evidence that coronaviruses, such as COVID-19, have mechanisms that suppress IFN⍺2b production, allowing the virus to evade the innate immune system and replicate unabated. Multiple clinical analyses show a significant link between the deficiency in Type 1 interferon and the development of severe COVID-19 disease. There is also accumulating evidence from preclinical studies that coronavirus replication is blocked by the addition of exogenous IFN⍺2b, thereby allowing cells to restore their normal anti-viral activity. 

For example, 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, the company said.

“COVID-19 is very much still a threat to the global population and its variants are a key challenge when developing therapeutics to protect against it,” said BetterLife CEO Ahmad Doroudian. 

“The broad mechanism of action of interferon is such that our scientists hypothesized it could be equally effective against different variants. We are very pleased to see that early preclinical data confirms this as this takes us one step closer to the potential result of reducing overall hospitalization rate, long-term tissue damage and death by reducing the overall severity of the disease.”

Doroudian added: “BetterLife will continue to work to extend the broad acting anti-viral efficacy of AP-003 to other emerging COVID-19 variants while simultaneously seeking strategic partners that can push forward the development of this promising treatment.”

Separately, BetterLife said it has entered into a clinical research agreement with the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile to conduct a randomized placebo-controlled trial in COVID-19 patients to test the company’s proprietary inhaled AP-003.

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Story by ProactiveInvestors