Aptorum Group and Covar Pharmaceuticals explore repurposed drugs for coronavirus

Aptorum Group Limited, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel therapeutics for unmet needs including but not limited to infectious, orphan and metabolic disease areas, announced that it is initiating an additional research and development project targeting the coronavirus group and has completed initial screening under the Smart-ACT™ platform, a repurposed and new drug discovery platform, to select, out of more than 2,600 approved small drug molecules, at least 3 potential candidates for further preclinical investigation against the new coronavirus disease, COVID-19. Aptorum Group is collaborating with Toronto based Covar Pharmaceuticals and has also entered into agreement with the University of Hong Kong’s Microbiology Department to conduct further preclinical investigation of the selected candidates prior to seeking approval from regulatory agencies to initiate clinical trials on suitable candidates.

In particular, Aptorum Group will focus on investigation of at least three small molecule drugs (collectively “SACT-COV19”), that have shown potential interference against two enzyme targets, namely, 3CL-Protease and RNA dependent RNA Polymerase (“RDRP”), with both playing pivotal roles in COVID-19’s replication cycle. Specifically, 3CL-Protease is believed to mediate viral replication and transcription functions through extensive proteolytic processing, while RDRP is an enzyme that is believed to catalyze the replication of viral RNA from its RNA template. These selected candidates will undergo further preclinical assessment on efficacy against COVID-19. Aptorum Group has filed patent applications on the above candidates.

For the ongoing investigation and preclinical work, Aptorum Group is collaborating with Toronto based Covar Pharmaceuticals and also Aptorum Group has contracted with the University of Hong Kong to conduct this work. Covar Pharmaceutical’s team (comprised of professionals previously from Patheon and Glaxo Wellcome)1 is highly experienced in drug discovery and development supported by its GMP manufacturing facility. The University of Hong Kong’s Microbiology team was instrumental in the discovery of SARS virus during the 2003 epidemic2, as well as currently being actively involved, in their own respective research interests, in developing vaccines for SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus3 and COVID-19 related monitoring physical device with other third parties4.

Aptorum Group will also seek additional collaborators globally for driving its development of SACT-COV19 initiatives forward and welcomes interested parties to contact us to discuss collaboration opportunities.

Aptorum Group, as part of its existing pipeline, is also developing a number of infectious disease indications under its Acticule platform, including, but not limited to, a unique antiviral small molecule candidate (ALS-1) against Influenza virus and also, as its lead program, an anti-virulent, non-bactericidal small molecule candidate (ALS-4) against Staphylococcus aureus infections, amongst other projects, for which Covar Pharmaceuticals is also currently supporting its development in North America.

Mr. Ian Huen, Chief Executive Officer of Aptorum Group said, “COVID-19 disease is highly contagious and has spread across the world causing significant disruptions and casualties in the process. The confirmed cases globally have exceeded 700,000 as of today’s date5 and the World Health Organization has declared COVID-19 as a pandemic. Despite a growing number of both established and early stage pharmaceutical companies rushing to develop vaccine based therapies for COVID-19, we believe there is a need to tackle this disease multi-dimensionally and urgently. In order to accelerate development, our aim is to identify candidates from already approved drugs, that have established safety, toxicity and pharmacokinetic clinical profiles, to be repurposed for treatment of COVID-19. In addition, due to the ongoing mutation and evolution of this coronavirus, we cannot rule out that there may be further strains of this coronavirus emerging in the near future and therefore, the world must be prepared to deal with such challenges swiftly and collectively in order to minimize casualties and economic loss. We believe that Aptorum Group’s Smart-ACT™ platform in conjunction with our existing Acticule infectious disease development capabilities and as supported by Covar Pharmaceuticals, is well-positioned to develop potential solutions and to deliver our share of contribution to the world on this disease as well as others.”