Identification of a compound as a candidate drug for the treatment of novel coronavirus infections

[20.07.08]

The Joint Research Center for Human Retrovirus Infection, Kagoshima University Campus, has made the following announcement: "We are pleased to announce that we have identified a compound as a therapeutic candidate for the treatment of COVID-19”.

A research team consisting of Dr. Masanori Baba, Director of the Joint Research Center for Human Retrovirus Infection, Dr. Mika Okamoto, Associate Professor and Dr. Masaaki Toyama, Assistant Professor at the Joint Research Center for Human Retrovirus Infection, Kagoshima University Campus succeeded in identifying a compound that strongly inhibits the replication of the new type of coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) using the biosafety level 3 (BSL3) experimental facility at the Joint Research Center.

Based on the results of this research, the university submitted an application for the invention of anti-SARS-CoV-2 drugs to the Patent Office on May 18, 2020. On June 19, 2020, the university signed a patent transfer agreement with Tokyo-based Oncolys BioPharma Inc (TSE Mothers: 4588) to initiate clinical development of this drug.

The global pandemic of the pneumonia caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19) is a serious threat to human existence.

At present, no vaccines exist against SARS-CoV-2 infection, thereby the clinical development of specific inhibitors is highly desired. In the meantime, there is an attempt to treat COVID-19 with existing drugs developed for other purposes.

However, these drugs are not optimized for SARS-CoV-2, so that they may have inevitable adverse effects due to the requirement of higher dosages. To circumvent such problems, the discovery and development of a dedicated treatment for COVID-19 needs to be addressed as soon as possible.

In this study, the Division of Antiviral Chemotherapy at the Center has received a SARS-CoV-2 sample from the National Institute of Infectious Diseases and established an anti-SARS-CoV-2 assay system in cell cultures and examined for the antiviral activity of the drugs owned by our laboratory.

We found that some drugs showed equal or better anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity than Gilead Sciences' ‘Remdesivir’, the first drug approved worldwide for the treatment of COVID-19, through testing simultaneously in the same cell culture assay system.

The patent assignee, Oncolys BioPharma Inc, will file an international patent application, elucidate the mechanism of action, establish a mass synthesis method, and conduct pharmacokinetic and safety studies. Through these studies, we will decide the final candidate drug to be developed.

Based on the results, we will conduct clinical trials as soon as possible to develop a new therapeutic agent against COVID-19.

Dr. Masanori Baba, Director of the Joint Research Center for Human Retrovirus Infection

The press conference

Experiment