The SARS-CoV-2 3CL protease lead CDI-45295 and several analogs of Cocrystal Pharma Inc (NASDAQ: COCP) showed potent in broad-spectrum vitro activity against the SARS-CoV-2 Delta and Gamma variants. Cocrystal Pharma, a clinical-stage biotechnology company, announced it on July 29, 2021. Moreover, it previously announced that CDI-45205 and analogs showed more vitro activity against the SARS-CoV-2 Alpha and Beta variants than the activity observed with the Wuhan strain.
Cocrystal’s President Statement
Sam Lee, Cocrystal’s President, said that the Cocrytal’s SARS-CoV-2 3CL protease inhibitor CDI-45205 would be an effective treatment for COVID-19, and its emerging variants, including the fast-spreading Delta variant, which is becoming the dominant COVID-19 variant globally. He also adds that the broad-spectrum activity against these SARS-CoV-2 variants is more encouraging as CDI-45205 previously demonstrated in vivo efficacy in a MERS-CoV 2 infected animal model.
James Martin, CFO of Cocrystal, said that in the preclinical testing against SARS-CoV and four significant variants, CDI-45205 successfully showed antiviral activity. As a result, they expect to scale up the manufacture and synthesis of active pharmaceutical ingredients to support Investigational New Drug enabling studies to advance CDI-45205 into clinical trials.
In addition to that, by using its proprietary drug discovery platform technology, the firm continues to develop SARS-CoV-2 oral protease inhibitors and replication inhibitors. This approach from Cocrystal Pharma provides a path for designing broad-spectrum coronavirus antivirals against SARS-CoV-2 and emerging variants.
About CDI-45205
In February and April 2021, Cocrystal announced their agreements with Kansa State University Research Foundation for proprietary broad-spectrum CL3 antiviral compounds to treat coronavirus and norovirus infections. Cocrystal announced the selection of CDI-45205 in December 2020 as its dominant coronavirus development candidate from a group of protease inhibitors collected under the KSURF agreements. CDI-45205 showed positive bioavailability in rat and mouse pharmacokinetic and no cytotoxicity against several human cell lines. Also, with remdesivir, CDI-45205 showed a strong synergistic effect. Additionally, according to the proof of concept animal study, the daily injection of CDI-45205 showed positivity in vivo efficacy in MERS-CoV-infected mice. Cocrystal obtained specific preliminary pharmacokinetic results and continued to evaluate CDI-45205.
