A Houston biotech company is working on a possible COVID-19 treatment with a drug previously developed for cancer patients.
PUL-042 is an aerosol drug in development for more than a decade which has been tested on mice and had limited human trials in the United Kingdom, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Pulmotect Chairman and Fannin Innovation Studio founder Leo Linbeck III said in a recent YouTube update that Pulmotect was excited to see what lies ahead for PUL-042.
"We're very hopeful in the fight against this pandemic," Linbeck said in the video.
Linbeck said over the last 10 years, the company has been developing the drug to help cancer patients during chemotherapy.
"That's part of the reason why the folks at MD Anderson, the inventors of this technology, started working on it," Linbeck said. "Then, together with Texas A&M, Fannin and a variety of other organizations have been working hard to bring this drug to market."
Linbeck said that's why the company made a decision to pivot into looking at how PUL-042 might help with the coronavirus.
"Our team is working full time — 18 hours a day — in order to get prepared to take this drug into a clinical trial," Linbeck said. "The team is first-rate and is led by our CEO Colin Broom. Where's Pulmotect right now? We've made a lot of progress."
Linbeck said Pulmotect has already tested this drug on human beings.
"We have two Phase I trials under our belt," Pulmotect said. "It's safe and well-tolerated in the clinical setting. We just filed Phase II protocols with the FDA specifically against COVID-19."
Linbeck said they are anxious to get started and see if the drug can make an impact against the virus.
"We think we can because we've already tested this against coronaviruses," Linbeck said. "For instance, data on SARS shows that if you take mice and give it our drug and then you give it the SARS virus, they survive."
Linbeck said if the mice don not receive the drug, they all die.
"We also see a big reduction in the MERS virus as well," Linbeck said. "It works with anything we've thrown at it, from anthrax to flu to bacteria. Why is that the case? It's because of the innate immune system."
Linbeck said the innate immune system is the front-line defense against viral, bacteria and fungal infections.
"It's an arms race when you get a virus that enters the lungs," Linbeck said. "Does the virus infect the lungs and you get pneumonia or do you fight it off? What we do is stimulate the existing lung lining. It turns on those defenses and brings them to alert. It destroys the virus on contact."
Pulmotect got the okay from the FDA in May to start Phase 2 trials targeting the coronavirus, a Pulmotect press release stated.
“Both clinical trials are placebo-controlled to objectively evaluate safety and efficacy,” Broom said in the press release. “In the first study, up to four doses of PUL-042 or placebo will be administered to 200 subjects by inhalation over a ten-day period to evaluate the prevention of infection and reduction in severity of COVID-19."
Broom said in the second study, 100 patients with early symptoms of the coronavirus will receive the treatment up to three times over six days.
"In both trials, subjects will be followed up for 28 days to assess the effectiveness and tolerability of PUL-042," Broom said in the press release.
Pulmotect officials did not return requests for comment.
