New Funds Will Help Expedite Completion of Recently Expanded Pivotal Phase 3 Study on Oral Antiviral Medicine
Infectious disease company, Appili Therapeutics Inc. (TSX: APLI; OTCQX: APLIF), has entered into an agreement with FUJIFILM Toyama Chemical Co., Ltd. (“FFTC”), that will provide funding support for its Phase 3 PRESECO (PREventing SEvere COVID-19) clinical trial. The new funding of $1,000,000 USD was secured from FFTC, one of the Company’s partners in a global consortium focused on the worldwide development, commercialization, and distribution of Avigan®/Reeqonus™ (favipiravir) tablets for the potential treatment and prevention of COVID-19. The new funding will support various components of the recently expanded PRESECO trial, including study close-out activities as the Company prepares for database lock and top-line results. Enrollment targets for PRESECO and the viral shedding sub-study were recently increased to enable additional enrollment of COVID-19 variant cases and maximize the number of patients in the final analysis. As part of the agreement, FFTC will receive direct access to PRESECO data in support of local regulatory submissions in Japan. PRESECO is investigating the safety and efficacy of Avigan/Reeqonus in the early treatment outpatient setting for adults infected with COVID-19. “FFTC recognizes the unmet need of this pandemic, which is the lack of safe, effective oral antiviral medicines to treat mild-to-moderate COVID-19 patients. With FFTC’s support, we are one step closer to determining if Avigan/Reeqonus will meet this need,” said Dr. Armand Balboni, Chief Executive Officer, Appili Therapeutics. Avigan/Reeqonus is a broad-spectrum antiviral in oral tablet form. It is a selective inhibitor of viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP) with potent antiviral activity against single-stranded RNA viruses, including coronaviruses. Developed by FFTC and originally approved in Japan as a treatment for pandemic influenza, this product is one of the few oral antiviral candidates in Phase 3 clinical development to treat newly diagnosed COVID-19 patients. “We share the sense of urgency that so many physicians and nurses have expressed globally for the need of new treatments developed that will help bring this pandemic to an end. We remain confident Avigan/Reeqonus will play an important role in North America, Japan, and around the world in the treatment of COVID-19 now, and in the near future,” said Junji Okada, President, FUJIFILM Toyama Co., Ltd. About the PRESECO Clinical Trial The Phase 3 PRESECO (PREventing SEvere COVID-19 Disease) study is a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized, multi-center superiority trial investigating the safety and efficacy of Avigan/Reeqonus in the early treatment for adults infected with COVID-19 and showing mild-to-moderate symptoms. Investigators are enrolling participants at multiple clinical trial sites in the United States, Brazil and Mexico. Participants are outpatients with mild-to-moderate symptoms who have had a recent positive COVID-19 test (within 72 hours of enrollment). Participants self-administer the drug regimen in their homes, with clinical investigators monitoring patients remotely. About Avigan/Reeqonus Avigan/Reeqonus is a broad-spectrum antiviral in oral tablet form. It is a selective inhibitor of viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP) with potent antiviral activity against single-stranded RNA viruses, including coronaviruses. Developed by FUJIFILM Toyama Chemical Co., Ltd. (FFTC) and approved in Japan as a treatment and stockpile countermeasure for pandemic influenza. Unlike most other interventions that researchers are evaluating in COVID-19, Avigan/Reeqonus has already been thoroughly studied in human trials and has a well-known safety profile, with over 3,000 subjects receiving at least one dose of the drug. Avigan/Reeqonus’ oral tablet form is shelf-stable and has an established commercial manufacturing process, which may provide advantages over other COVID-19 interventions, which often require temperature-controlled storage and/or injection or intravenous administration. Source: Appili Therapeutics Inc.
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