Lexington pharmaceutical company developing nasal spray to treat COVID-19
A Lexington pharmaceutical company is working to produce a nasal spray that could prevent one from catching COVID-19, as well as keep symptoms at bay in patients who have already tested positive for the highly contagious virus.
Summit Biosciences, Inc. announced this week it had been awarded a contract from a Seattle-based pharmaceutical company, Atossa Therapeutics, Inc., to fast track the development of a nasal spray to be used on patients who’ve been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus but who “have not yet exhibited symptoms severe enough to require hospitalization,” according to the press release.
More than 9,700 Kentuckians have so far contracted COVID-19, and 438 have died. Though the state has blunted its infection curve and is in the process of a phased reopening of businesses, rigorous social distancing guidelines will continue to be in place at least until a vaccine is developed, Gov. Andy Beshear has said.
Summit Biosciences’ nasal spray would not replace a vaccine once it’s eventually developed, but it is “meant to be a bridge to a vaccine,” Summit Biosciences Chief Operating Officer Greg Plucinski said by phone on Friday. And “it will be useful even after the vaccine” is developed. “It may be useful for other viruses as well,” he said.
COVID-19 is a viral respiratory disease that often initially settles in the nose — one of the most widely used tests to determine whether a person actively has the new coronavirus is a nasal swab — which is why the company is working to produce a nasal spray. Typically, as the infection becomes more severe, it will move to the lungs, where it can become deadly. The point with this drug is to catch it early enough, before that happens.
In order for the virus’ spike proteins to take hold in a person’s nasal cavity, certain cells in the mucus must first activate that viral spike protein. This nasal spray would inhibit that activation process, acting as a “barrier inside the nose to prevent virus entry,” Atossa CEO and President Steven Quay said.
Researchers at the University of Kentucky are also working to develop similar COVID-19 treatments in three clinical trials to treat symptoms of those who’ve already tested positive for the virus and help them avoid needing to be hospitalized, and to develop a drug that prevents transmission of the virus.
“We are looking for a therapy that prevents people from having to go to the hospital, or if they happen to be in the hospital and are not critically ill, [from] becoming critically ill,” Dr. Zach Porterfield, assistant professor of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics at UK, explained on a McClatchy-hosted panel last week about COVID-19 treatments.
One of the clinical trials involves testing the efficacy of an iodine nasal spray to protect people who are at especially high risk from contracting the virus, including frontline health care workers, Porterfield said.
Summit Bioscience’s nasal spray would be targeted toward healthier people who’ve tested positive but don’t have severe symptoms. To be used at home, the nasal spray would work to keep them from developing those symptoms as well as to slow the infection rate, overall, putting their immune system in a better position to fight the virus. The goal is to eventually commercialize therapies for patients “on both ends of the spectrum,” Quay said — those healthier patients well enough to be treated at home, and sicker patients who may require a ventilator.
The contract also allows for testing the nasal spray’s usefulness as a prophylaxis, to prevent one from contracting COVID-19 in the first place, Plucinski said. A person would use the nasal spray each time before leaving the house, for example.
The goal is to start clinical trials on people by the end of September, Plucinski said, though that first requires approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
This story was originally published June 1, 2020 at 3:16 PM.
