Chiral Pharma Corporation, a subsidiary of New Marketlink Pharmaceutical Corporation (NMPC) and a frontrunner in the anti-rabies vaccine market, is working with CytoDyn Inc., a biotechnology company in the US, to bring a possible treatment for the novel coronavirus disease in the Philippines.
Under the partnership, CytoDyn will maintain responsibility for the development of leronlimab, which is used to treat COVID-19 patients in the United States, while Chiral will help the biotech firm obtain approval from the Food and Drug Administration to make the drug available to the Filipino people.
“Companies across the globe are tirelessly developing medicines and vaccines to treat COVID-19. As CytoDyn has been working hard to complete the third phase of the clinical trial, we are committed to supporting the registration of leronlimab with the FDA in the Philippines,” Chiral Pharma president and CEO Francis Gomez said.
“We are hoping the drug will greatly help our patients recover and have another chance at life,” he added.
Leronlimab is a monoclonal antibody CCR5 receptor antagonist used as a platform drug for a variety of indications. The drug blocks the immunologic receptor CCR5 to protect healthy T cells from viral infection.
CytoDyn has already completed its Phase 2 clinical trial where mild-to-moderate COVID-19 patients in the US were given leronlimab. Enrolment continues for its Phase 2b/3 randomized clinical trial for the severe-to-critically ill COVID-19 patients in several hospitals in the US and in the United Kingdom.